Serves a Crowd

Tomato Cobbler

by:
July 10, 2016
3.5
4 Ratings
Tomato Cobbler
Photo by James Ransom
  • Serves 6 to 8
Author Notes

A redeeming dish for a-little-too-ripe tomatoes. Heavily adapted from a recipe in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. To fancy it up, peel the tomatoes, or add Parmesan to the topping. Neither are in any way necessary. —Ali Slagle

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 5 tomatoes, cut into large wedges (add more if the bottom of the pan isn't completely filled with tomatoes)
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 tablespoons chopped basil
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup cornmeal
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into cubes
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
Directions
  1. Heat the oven to 375°F.
  2. Butter or oil a pie plate or 8-inch square baking dish. In a bowl, combine the tomatoes, cornstarch, red pepper flakes, garlic, basil, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Pour them into the prepared dish. If there aren't enough tomatoes to fully over the bottom of the pan, add a few more.
  3. To make the topping, in a medium bowl, stir together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and a 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Add the butter cubes, stir to combine, then break the butter up with your fingers so the cubes turn into small pebbles. Pour in the buttermilk and mix until the topping comes together. If it looks dry, add more buttermilk. If it doesn't look dollop-able, add more flour.
  4. Drop dollops of the topping on top of the tomatoes, leaving little holes so the tomatoes can steam through.
  5. Baking for about 40 minutes, until the tomatoes are bubbling and the topping is lightly brown. Serve warm or at room temp, by the large spoonful.
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5 Reviews

Manhattan T.
Manhattan T. October 1, 2016
Made this using 8 large Roma and a few handfuls of large grape tomatoes. My Romas were really juicy so I seeded some of them to avoid a runny mess. I used a bit more cornstarch, baked it in an 11x7 dish and used 1/4 c. each more flour and cornmeal with a bit more buttermilk but kept butter the same; making the topping in the Cuisinart made it super-easy. Had plenty of topping. I added 1/2 tsp of kosher salt to the topping and it needed it. Baked it for 50-55 min. for a nice brown topping. Next time will add some sliced shallots but will happily make it again.
 
Laura415
Laura415 July 17, 2016
I'd like to try this. I usually have more than one garden ingredient that needs using up though. I could see making this a ratatouille cobbler using up eggplants and zucchini as well as tomatoes. I might make a biscuit topping too although the topping recipe listed sounds good too.
 
Julie
Julie July 17, 2016
This was delicious, but I think I needed more cornstarch to thicken the filling since my tomatoes were so juicy. The biscuit-y topping was a real winner. I ended up having to up the temperature and cook for 20 minutes extra to brown the tops, but I attribute that partially to the giant heirloom tomatoes I used. All in all, delicious recipe! I ate half the pan all by myself!
 
Lazyretirementgirl
Lazyretirementgirl July 17, 2016
Ali, do you think I could sub whole wheat flour or besan for the white flour? This looks really alluring but might be too high on the glycemic load index for us.
 
Christine_Sonja
Christine_Sonja July 15, 2016
Thank you for this recipe! I tried this tonight and it is absolutely delicious.