Bertie County Tomato Pudding

This dish was new to me—probably because the good home cooks down near Albemarle Sound, NC, kept this little kitchen secret to themselves—except for those church cookbooks.  Although the combination of flavorings seemed unusual, I had a good many salvageable bits from storm-ravaged tomatoes and a few slices of stale baguette, so I gave it a try.  All the recipes I found had coma-inducing amounts of sugar, which I cut back to 1/3 to ½ cup.  The church ladies call this a ‘side’, but it’s sweet enough for dessert.

• Skin and seed tomato pieces, “over the sink”, tear apart what’s left (1-1/2 cups), and let sit in bowl with juices.
• Cube 4-5 slices of baguette and brown in a little butter until crisp.
• Add ½ cup sugar to tomatoes, a little vanilla, salt and pepper and some grated nutmeg.
• Preheat oven to 350’—butter a small casserole dish
• Combine tomatoes and crisp croutons, dot with buttered bread crumbs and bake for 30-40 min.

The Kitchen Hive