The San Marzano (Roma) tomato harvest is burying me. I’ve been drying a lot of them to use the rest of the year. Today I decided to do a spin on the Green Tomato Casserole. I hesitated to talk about this creation, because I used a cornbread I made with okra and garbanzo beans in it. It was great the first day, then it got a little soggy and I’ve had it in the fridge. Today I was trying to use up the cornbread and the tomatoes and voila, this is it, and it’s yummy!
Red Tomato Cornbread
Ingredients
- 1/4 pound bacon, cut in small pieces
- 2 large onions, peeled and thinly sliced
- Red Roma type tomatoes, sliced to medium thickness (pile to 1 - 1 1/2" thickness in bottom of 9x13 pan)
- Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning
- Granulated garlic powder
- Slices of cornbread or day old polenta (grits)
- Pepper jack cheese, slices or shredded
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350°.
- In a large skillet over medium high heat, fry bacon until crisp. Remove and set aside, leaving fat in the skillet.
- Saute the onions in the bacon fat until golden and remove to another plate.
- In a greased 9x13 baking pan, place the tomato slices, sprinkle with Chachere's and garlic powder.
- Scatter onions and bacon over everything. Then lay on (fairly thin) slices of cornbread.
- Lay cheese on top of cornbread.
- Bake until cheese is golden and the tomatoes are cooked, about 45 minutes. If the top starts browning too much, loosely cover with foil.
- Note: Roma tomatoes have less moisture than regular tomatoes. After the casserole cooked, I did end up pouring off some fabulous tomato juice that I will put to good use. Also, I forgot to put the onion and bacon on, so it's between the cheese and cornbread in the above picture. That's just the way it goes in my kitchen sometimes!