Recipe from Edna Lewis
Adapted by Melissa Clark
Updated June 20, 2024
- Total Time
- about 1 hour
- Prep Time
- 15 minutes
- Cook Time
- 50 minutes
- Rating
- 4(11)
- Notes
- Read community notes
In her cookbook, “The Taste of Country Cooking,” Edna Lewis includes this homey dish of baked tomatoes in her menu for a summer wheat-harvesting dinner. Sweetened with sugar and thickened with pieces of buttered bread, it’s an unusual side dish that’s just as good when made with soft, overripe tomatoes as it is with perfect ones. Using a mix of different size and color tomatoes makes this both visually and texturally appealing. But feel free to use whatever ripe tomatoes you have. —Melissa Clark
Featured in: The Woman Who Created the Modern Cookbook
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Ingredients
Yield:4 to 6 servings
- 2tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small bits, plus more for pan
- 3½ to 4 cups (about 2 pounds) mix of cherry tomatoes and regular tomatoes (cherry tomatoes halved; larger tomatoes cut into 1½-inch pieces)
- 2slices stale sourdough bread, cut into 12 pieces
- ½teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½teaspoon to 3½ tablespoons granulated sugar (see Tip)
- Freshly ground pepper
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)
202 calories; 5 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 1 gram monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 33 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 9 grams sugars; 7 grams protein; 484 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Generously butter a 1-quart casserole dish (or 8-by-8-inch baking dish).
Step
2
In a saucepan, combine tomatoes and 2 tablespoons water. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat and cook gently, stirring often, until most of the liquid evaporates, 5 to 15 minutes depending on how juicy they are. They should soften but still more or less hold their shape.
Step
3
Line the sides of the prepared pan with 8 pieces of bread. Pour the stewed tomatoes and any liquid into the pan. Top the tomatoes with half of the butter and season with the salt, sugar and pepper. Place the 4 remaining pieces of bread on top, dotting each piece of bread with the last of the butter.
Step
4
Bake until the tomatoes are bubbling, about 35 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Tip
- Edna Lewis’s original recipe calls for 3½ tablespoons sugar, but you can add less if you like. More sugar makes it taste like a sweet tomato jam. Less sugar is lighter and brighter.
Ratings
4
out of 5
11
user ratings
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Cooking Notes
john golden
Bake for 35 minutes period at which time they’ll be bubbling. I’ve been making this for years from Edna Lewis cookbook. Never use cherry tomatoes. And always add the sugar. The other great recipe from her book The Gift of Southern Cooking is scalloped tomatoes. For the bread in baked tomatoes I always use a good bakery white loaf that you cut into thick slices.
todd
Re: Step 4. Bake for 35 minutes until tomatoes are bubbling? Or bake until tomatoes have been bubbling for 35 minutes?
Debbie
This dish will only get better as the summer goes along and tomatoes become really summer-y. I used GF sourdough bread and 1 T sugar. My celiac daughter will love it when she’s in Calif. in July. A keeper!
John B.
My mother made this dish at Christmas, which she called Tomato Pudding. It was from her friend who hailed from Virginia's tidewater area. Recipes are almost identical, except Nanalou Sauder's Tomato Pudding recipe called for saltines.
todd
Re: Step 4. Bake for 35 minutes until tomatoes are bubbling? Or bake until tomatoes have been bubbling for 35 minutes?
Kjl
My mother grew up with a cook and when she married had to learn how to cook. She made something similar to this with whatever she had on hand. Nothing frou frou -regular butter, bread, tomatoes, no measuring, it was delicious. A side for meatloaf, fried or baked cx or pork chops. She fed a family of 5 with little money but lots of love
Rebecca Steele
This is almost identical to make tomato pudding my grandmothers in Indiana were making in 1930s 40s 50s, simlar to Tomato co*ckaigne in Joy of Cooking, and can be endlessly modified by using lots more tomatoes, lots more bread, baking for two hours at 250°, and garnishing with chopped fresh basil at serving time. Just delicious! Can’t wait until our tomatoes are ripe and juicy!
john golden
Bake for 35 minutes period at which time they’ll be bubbling. I’ve been making this for years from Edna Lewis cookbook. Never use cherry tomatoes. And always add the sugar. The other great recipe from her book The Gift of Southern Cooking is scalloped tomatoes. For the bread in baked tomatoes I always use a good bakery white loaf that you cut into thick slices.
Sian Hughes
Thank you for clarifying, and for the tips.
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