The BEST! Bursting Tomato Cobbler with Basil Butter Biscuits

Updated August 2024 :: This Tomato Cobbler is a prelude to summertime goodness, and an absolutely fantastic way to use all of the tomatoes you bring home this summer. The addition of a little balsamic vinegar, some gooey mozzarella cheese, and of course, fresh, sweet basil, make the one unforgettable dish. This is also my favorite way to make mile-high flaky biscuits. The addition of basil into the biscuits themselves scents the whole tomato cobbler with summertime flavor, and gives this recipe a little something special.

Interested in more amazing tomato recipes? Check out our Sweet Corn Caprese with Roasted Vegetables, or our Whipped Mozzarella with Honey Drenched Tomatoes, or maybe our Cloud Caprese Cups. All are what my personal summer dreams are made of …

“Lauren McDuffie’s Tomato Cobbler is Peak Summer …” – Instagram user

If you like the looks of this Juicy Tomato Cobbler with Basil Butter Biscuits, you might want to check out:

Easy Broccoli Cheddar Cobbler

Roasted Veggie Caprese Salad with Crispy Prosciutto

Salmon and Chorizo Skillet

Pan Roasted Salmon with Gnocchi, Tomatoes, and Mozzarella Fondue

Why We Love This Amazing Cheesy Tomato Cobbler

Tomato, To-mahhh-to. This Juicy Tomato Cobbler with Basil Butter Biscuits is an idea that I’ve had floating around in my mind for about a month or so now. I was able to get my hands of some pretty fantastic tomatoes yesterday, so it was GAME ON. Creating this one was an exercise of total joy for me. Recipes like this that celebrate the very best of a season give so much soul to home cooking – it’s fun for me, what can I say?

Kitchen Little Essentials

To make this Cheesy Tomato Cobbler with Basil Butter Biscuits, you will need:

That said, the cool thing about this tomato cobbler recipe is that you can make it with really any size, shape, and variety of tomato that you have or want to use – it doesn’t matter. When tomatoes mix and mingle in a hot oven for 50 minutes, in a steaming balsamic and olive oil bath – they’re going to be good just by default. Even the not so great ones. This is such a good thing!

Here, I want you to just fill your pie plate halfway with whatever shapes and sizes of tomatoes you want. You can do all slices of thick-cut beefsteak or heirloom. You can do an entire dish of small cherry or grape tomatoes. You could do mid-sized beauties like Roma and Campari – whatever strikes your fancy.

You’ll also need to grab:

A pie plate

A good serrated knife, for slicing tomatoes

A mixing bowl, for the biscuits

How to Make Our Easy Tomato Cobbler

For this tomato cobbler recipe, you’re only going to need a few things. The tomato filling is really just tomatoes, salt and pepper, and a splash of balsamic vinegar + olive oil + garlic powder. Nestle in some mozzarella cheese and you’re done. On to the biscuits!

Oh, these biscuits.

You’ve Heard of Smashed Burgers. Let’s Talk Smashed Biscuits!

I’ve shared them here before in multiple iterations, in many varied dishes, both sweet and savory. The biscuits recipe for this cobbler is based on one that Bon Appetit shared a while back, and it essentially involves a stacking method.

1. We’ll put together the dough as you would a typical buttermilk biscuit, and then sneak in some basil paste (which you can get pretty much everywhere now).
2. Then we’ll gather and pat the dough into a disk that’s about 3/4-inch-thick (give or take).
3. NEXT, we’ll cut the dough into 6 pieces.
4. THEN we will stack half the dough on top of the other half.
5. And THEN we’ll literally take our hands and smash the dough down, forming it back into that same disk. This creates so many layers. So much flakiness!
6. Then, lastly, we’ll cut the dough into cute little biscuits (you can do circles or squares, whatever you like).

If you’re interested in all manner of biscuit-eering, then you might also enjoy our angel biscuits, or Alison Roman’s Luckiest Biscuits in America.

How to make this incredible Tomato Cobbler: Here’s the Step-by-Step:

1. Begin by making the biscuits. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and adjust your rack to the middle position.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk until well mixed. Add in the grated butter and, using your hands or a pastry blender, mix the butter into the dry ingredients until well-incorporated and the mixture is shaggy and holds together when you press some between your fingers. Add the 1 cup + 2 TBSP buttermilk and the basil paste, and stir until a dough forms. If you need a little more buttermilk to help it come together, that’s fine. 
3. Transfer the dough to a clean, flat, flour-dusted work surface. Pat and shape it into a rectangle that’s about ¾-inch-thick. Using a knife, cut the dough in half. Stack one half on top of the other half and then smash the stack down, creating another ¾-inch-thick rectangle. 
4. From this, cut your biscuits. You can use a round biscuit cutter or just cut rectangular/square biscuits with a knife. Make them as big or small as you like.  Place the biscuits in the fridge while you make the filling.
5. Place your sliced tomatoes and mozzarella right into the pie plate. Add the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper, and garlic powder. You only want to fill the dish about halfway, as the tomatoes will release a TON of juice as they roast, so you don’t want it to spill over much. Top with the biscuits. Brush the biscuits with a little buttermilk and sprinkle with some salt. 
6. Place the pie plate on a baking sheet and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the biscuits are wonderfully, fantastically golden brown. If they start to darken around the edges before they’re done in the middles, just lay a big piece of foil on top of the cobbler and let it finish baking that way. 
7. Let the cobbler sit for about 10 minutes before serving. Top with fresh basil, if desired.

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