Tomato Cobbler: Slow-roasted tomatoes, deeply flavored caramelized onions and fluffy savory Gruyere thyme biscuits. Savory cobbler at its best!

It’s August and local tomatoes here in CT are everywhere, including our backyard. As I mentioned in my garden update yesterday, we’ll likely be overrun with cherries by the end of the week. And the first heirloom we cut into last night was summer tomato perfection.

My parents attempted to grow tomatoes a few times when I was a kid but the freaking squirrels usually got the best of them so it was either up to my mom’s friends to drop a few by every couple of weeks in ever-hazy August or my mom would hit up some local farm stands.

And by local, I mean the little old Italian lady around the corner selling the vegetables she grew on her available 1/16 acre of property.

But those homegrown tomatoes! Man, I could eat them like an apple and to this day, it’s the first thing I think of when August comes to mind.

So this tomato cobbler. Admittedly, I was a little skeptical about this one. Cobbler biscuits over roasted tomatoes? Really?

But you must trust me here. This is one fine summer meal. In fact, it’s pretty darn spectacular, except for having to use the oven and all but really, it’s totally worth it, people.

I felt the same hesitation about using the oven to bake these scalloped tomatoes with croutons a few summers ago. That turned into another summer tomato recipe that I just can’t shake. It’s so insanely delicious!

How to Make Tomato Cobbler with Gruyere Thyme Biscuits

To make tomato cobbler, you’ll (see the full recipe below for more details!):

Caramelize some onions in an oven-safe sauté pan and let them cool for a few minutes.
Preheat oven to 375° F.
Toss the onions with the freshest cherry tomatoes that you can find with some flour, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper
Mix the dry biscuit ingredients and thyme together. Work the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter, 2 knives, or your fingers until the mixture looks like coarse meal.
Stir the cheese and cream into the biscuit mixture.
Top the tomatoes and onion mixture with dollops of the biscuit mixture using a large ice cream scoop. Sprinkle extra cheese over the top of the biscuit dough.
Bake for about 1 hour and cool for 20 minutes before serving.

Tossing the tomatoes with flour may sound a little strange but the flour will help to create a luscious sauce with the juices that burst from the tomatoes in the oven. It’s not something you’re going to want to skip in this recipe.

The only tough part about this meal is waiting for it to bake! Buuuut the end result is truly magical: slow-roasted tomatoes that juice out into a thick and almost-sweet sauce with deeply flavored caramelized onions and fluffy, cheesy, and herby biscuits that soak up the sauce and add a little nuttiness to whole meal.

I urge you to try to find some local cherry tomatoes if you’re not already growing them in your yard because this tomato cobbler really is what summer eating is about!

Annnnd, if you want to go bonkers with cobbler, make this peach cobbler recipe with its sugared biscuit topping served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert. A summer cobbler party! What could be more fun?!

Tomato Cobbler Recipe with Gruyere Thyme Biscuits

Name: Tomato Cobbler Recipe with Gruyere Thyme Biscuits
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h 35 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil; 2 tbsp unsalted butter; 2 medium onions, thinly sliced; 4 garlic cloves, minced; 1 ½ tsp fresh thyme, stemmed and minced; 3 lbs cherry tomatoes; 3 tbsp all-purpose flour; ¼ tsp crushed red-pepper flakes; Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper; 2 cups all-purpose flour; 2 tsp baking powder; 1 tsp fresh thyme, stemmed and minced; Coarse salt; 1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces; 1 cup grated Gruyère cheese (2 ¼ oz), plus 2 tbsp, for sprinkling; 1 ½ cups heavy cream

Yield: 6 servings

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Bake Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes

Tomato cobbler with gruyere thyme biscuits will be your new favorite meal this summer! Caramelized onions are baked with fresh cherry tomatoes under a lid of savory, cheesy, herby biscuits. Prepare for some dinner table swooning with this meal! It's a great vegetarian meal but if you have meat eaters in your house, grilled Italian pork or chicken sausages would go great with this cobbler.

Ingredients

For the tomato filling:

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 ½ tsp fresh thyme, stemmed and minced
3 lbs cherry tomatoes
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
¼ tsp crushed red-pepper flakes
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

For the savory biscuit topping:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp fresh thyme, stemmed and minced
Coarse salt
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup grated Gruyère cheese (2 ¼ oz), plus 2 tbsp, for sprinkling
1 ½ cups heavy cream

Instructions

To make the tomato filling: Heat oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add in the onions and cook until caramelized, stirring occasionally, about 25 minutes. Stir in the garlic and thyme, and cook until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Set the mixture aside to cool for 10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375° F.
In a large bowl, toss the onion mixture with the tomatoes, flour, and red-pepper flakes, 1 ½ teaspoons salt, and about ¼ teaspoon pepper.
To make the biscuit topping: Whisk the flour, baking powder, thyme, and 1 teaspoon salt together in a bowl until well-combined. Gently toss in the butter pieces and coat them with the flour mixture. Rub the butter in with your fingers (use your thumbs and first two fingers) until the mixture becomes a little crumbly and the butter forms small clumps - you'll need to use a little pressure to get the cold butter to break up so don't be afraid to "get dirty". Alternatively, you can use a pastry cutter or 2 knives. Stir in the cheese then pour in the cream. Stir the cheese and cream in with a fork to combine just until a dough forms and no flour remains - the dough should be wet and sticky.
Using a large ice cream scoop or a ¼ cup measuring cup drop clumps of biscuit dough (about ½ cup each) over the top of the tomatoes on the outside edge of the dish, leaving the center open. Sprinkle the tops of the biscuits with the remaining 2 tablespoons of cheese.
Bake until the tomatoes are bubbling in the center and biscuits are golden brown, about 1 hour. Transfer the dish to a wire rack. Let cool for 20 minutes before serving.

Notes

adapted from Martha Stewart Living July 2011, via Pink Parsley

Recommended Products

As a member of the Amazon Associate affiliate program, I earn a small percentage from your qualifying Amazon purchases when you click the Amazon links on this page. I'm not informed of who purchases what, just of what products are purchased.