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If you grew up in the South, you already know about tomato pie — and if you didn’t, this is the summer you find out. Fresh ripe tomatoes, smoky bacon, sharp cheddar, and a buttery cracker topping all baked into a flaky pie shell. It tastes exactly like a BLT, but better.

Why You’ll Love It

Tastes like a BLT in pie form — sweet summer tomatoes, smoky bacon, and sharp cheddar in every bite
That cracker topping — buttery, golden, and just a little crunchy in the best possible way
Simple ingredients, big flavor — nothing fancy, just good produce and pantry staples
Perfect for peak tomato season — a great reason to use up those garden tomatoes before they get away from you
Feeds a crowd without much fuss — slices cleanly, reheats well, and disappears fast

Ingredient Notes

The tomatoes are everything here, so please, don’t make this with those hard pink things from the grocery store. Wait for summer. Use tomatoes that actually smell like something when you slice into them. Any large, ripe, flavorful tomato works — a mix of whatever you have is just fine.

For the bacon, thick-cut smoky works great when you have it, but regular sliced bacon is fine too. Cook it crispy and leave it in bigger pieces so you actually taste it in every bite.

The onion: Vidalia or any sweet onion is the move here. Red onion works too — just different. I stick with sweet.

Ritz crackers for the topping. You could swap in buttery panko or another cracker, but Ritz are what this recipe has always called for and there’s never been a good reason to change it. That slightly sweet, buttery flavor just works.

One more thing — shred your own cheese if you can. Pre-shredded is coated in stuff that keeps it from melting as nicely. It seems fussy but the filling is noticeably better for it.

Ingredients

1 nine-inch pie shell (store-bought is fine)
5 large tomatoes, peeled and sliced
4 slices bacon, cooked and chopped
1 sweet onion, sliced or roughly chopped
1 teaspoon salt — maybe a little more, taste as you go
½ teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons milk
½ cup mayonnaise
1½ cups sharp cheddar, freshly shredded
About ¼ cup Ritz crackers, crushed (a zip-lock bag works great for this)
2 teaspoons butter, melted
2 green onions, sliced for the top

Instructions

Start by pre-baking your pie shell. Prick the bottom all over with a fork — don’t skip this, or it puffs up in the middle and you end up with a lopsided situation — and bake it at 350 for about ten minutes. You’re not trying to cook it all the way through, just firm it up a little so it doesn’t turn to mush later. Set it aside to cool slightly.

While that’s going, fry your bacon in a cast iron skillet over medium heat, turning it until it’s cooked through and a little crispy at the edges. Drain on paper towels, let it cool enough to handle, then chop it up.

Now peel and slice your tomatoes. Peeling them is a little tedious — score the bottom with an X, drop them in boiling water for about thirty seconds, then into a bowl of ice water and the skin slips right off — but it makes a real difference in the final texture. Unpeeled tomatoes can get chewy and stringy in a way that bothers me.

Layer the tomato slices into the bottom of your pre-baked shell. Scatter the onion over the top — sliced thin or roughly chopped, both work — and season with salt and pepper. Add another layer of tomatoes, more salt and pepper. Don’t be shy with the seasoning here, tomatoes can take it.

In a bowl, mix together the mayo, bacon, shredded cheese, and milk. It’ll be thick and a little unwieldy — that’s normal. Spoon this over the top of your tomato layers and press it down gently with the back of a spoon so it covers everything. It won’t be perfectly smooth. That’s fine.

Crush your Ritz crackers, stir them with the melted butter, and spread that mixture over the top. It’ll look like a lot, but it settles as it bakes.

Into the oven at 350 for 30 minutes, until the top is golden and the filling is set and bubbling slightly at the edges. Check around the 25-minute mark if your oven runs hot. You want the cracker topping nicely browned, not burnt.

Pull it out and let it sit for at least ten minutes before cutting into it. Skip this step and you’ll have a soupy mess on your plate instead of a slice. Once it’s rested, scatter the sliced green onions over the top.

Variations

Adding fresh basil to the filling is worth trying if you’ve got a lot coming in alongside the tomatoes — it shifts the flavor profile into something almost different entirely, but in a good way.

A mix of cheddar and mozzarella gets a little stretchier and meltier if you want something that leans more pizza-adjacent.

A biscuit crust instead of a standard pie shell is possible — tried it once, didn’t repeat it. The traditional crust holds up much better to all that tomato moisture.

Storage

Keep leftovers in the fridge, covered. Good for two or three days. Reheat slices in the oven at around 300 rather than the microwave, which turns the cracker topping sad and soft. Cold, straight from the fridge the next morning — also not a bad option.

This pie may not be the prettiest thing you’ll pull out of the oven, but don’t let that fool you. Every bite is sweet, smoky, and packed with fresh summer flavor. Make it once and it’ll become your go-to recipe all season long.