Pimento Cheese Pie

Last week was Masters Week - a holiday for us Georgia folks.  My Daddy was there over the weekend and although he is an avid golf fan, I know one of his favorite parts of the Masters is the pimento cheese sandwiches.  The Masters may be an exclusive sporting event, but once inside (if you're lucky enough), none of the food or drink costs more than $3.  To honor the great food tradition of the Masters, I decided to make some of my [self appointed] famous pimento cheese.

Since I've blogged about pimento cheese sandwiches before, I needed to do something a little different to merit a post.  Tomato pie is a Southern thing and I recently read that people have been making it topped with pimento cheese, also a Southern thing.  I suppose that makes this pie doubly Southern.  Southern squared, perhaps.

I drew water out of thick, firm beefsteak tomato slices by sprinkling with water and letting them sit out for about 10 minutes.  Once they were ready, I got to layering.  I covered the bottom of pre-baked pie shell with slices of prosciutto.  I put the tomatoes in next, cutting some in half in order to make sure every bite got a piece of 'mater.  Finally, I put my own pimento cheese on top.  Sorry, but you ain't getting that recipe; it's top secret.  I baked the whole thing at 350 for about 15 minutes, just long enough for the prosciutto to crisp a bit and for the cheese to melt but not so long that the tomatoes got soggy.

True, the green jacket is the Masters' most coveted souvenir, but a good pimento cheese dish is a not so distant second.  This is a great new way to use pimento cheese and a nice dish to bring to brunch.