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Harvest delight: Tomatoes in a cheese-biscuit cobbler

Recipe: Onions, garlic add to this summer side dish

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Kathy Morrison PUBLISHED AUG 13, 2023

Yes, there are tomatoes under that cheesy biscuit topping. This cobbler is one recipe worth turning the oven on for. Kathy Morrison

Five various tomatoes — Only the bottom left tomato needed peeling.

Cobbler is a summer thing, and this tomato-packed cobbler is about as summery as you can get.

Given to me by a dear friend, the recipe first appeared in Martha Stewart Living magazine, but I've tweaked it over the years, changing the tomatoes, the cheese and a few other things. Instead of several pounds of cherry tomatoes, my version uses mostly slicing and heirloom tomatoes, along with a few sauce tomatoes for thickening. I like Cheddar cheese in this, but Gruyere or Monterey jack works also.

I wait to make the cobbler until I have a good variety of tomatoes and then try to find a day when it's not too hot, because the oven has to be on for nearly an hour. However, it's worth it, believe me.

Recently I also cut down the serving size, because the first version makes too much for two people. If you'd like to check out Martha's original, which serves 6 to 8, find it here.

Tomato cobbler with cheese biscuit topping

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1-1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, chopped or slivered

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced or minced

Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 to 4-1/2 cups cored and quartered tomatoes (any combination of heirloom, slicing, paste or halved cherry tomatoes), some seeds removed, only thick skins peeled

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Tomato mixture in casserole dish — Tomato-onion mixture ready for topping

Topping:

1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon coarse salt

6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

2/3 cup shredded cheese, plus 2 tablespoons for sprinkling on top

1 cup buttermilk, plus more for brushing on topping

Instructions:

Prepare a 2-quart casserole by lightly coating it with butter or oil spray. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat, then add the onions and cook until they are soft and starting to turn brown, about 20 minutes. Add the garlic, 1 teaspoon salt and a grind or two of black pepper, and continue cooking for 3 minutes. Let cool.

In a large bowl (or in the pan if it's big enough), toss the onion mixture, the tomatoes, 2 tablespoons flour and the red pepper flakes. Scrape the filling into the prepared casserole and set aside while you make the topping.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or two knives, or rub in with your fingers, until small clumps form. Stir in the 2/3 cup shredded cheese, then add the 1 cup buttermilk, stirring with a fork or spatula until a dough forms. (It'll be sticky.)

Cobbler with circle of raw dough ready to bake

Use a large spoon to place mounds of biscuit dough on top of the tomato mixture around the edge of the casserole dish, leaving the center open -- see photo at right. (If you have too much dough for your dish, the extra can be baked as drop biscuits.)

Brush the biscuit dough with additional buttermilk, then sprinkle on the remaining cheese. Bake until the biscuits are golden brown and the tomatoes are bubbling, 45-50 minutes.

Let the casserole cool on a wire rack for about 20 minutes before serving.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

Sacramento gardening tomatoes recipe recipes cobbler savory dishes summer farm to fork farmers market vegetables backyard produce produce management

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Garden checklist for week of Aug. 16

During this break in the heat, feed your garden. Make sure to water before and after applying fertilizer.

* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips.

* Plant potatoes.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing. Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers. Also, give them a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting.

* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in early morning or late afternoon.

* Feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give a boost to the fruit that’s still small.

* Mulch can be your garden’s best friend – it conserves moisture while blocking out weeds. But don't let mulch mound around stalks, stems or trunks. That can promote rot.

* Camellia leaves looking a little yellow? Give them some chelated iron. That goes for azaleas and gardenias, too.

* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot. Then feed fruit trees with slow-release fertilizer for better production for next year.

* To prolong bloom into fall, feed begonias, fuchsias and container plants. Always water before fertilizing.

* Fertilize fall-blooming perennials, too. Chrysanthemums can be fed until the buds start to open.

* Prepare for a fall full of flowers by paying a little extra attention to your garden. Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials, then give them a boost of fertilizer. Make sure to water plants before feeding. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.

* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.

* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.

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