Virginia Stewed Tomatoes

It is best to use stale biscuits since they soak up more liquid but I’ve made the biscuits fresh and not noticed that much of a difference. Either way, you want the biscuits made and cool to the touch BEFORE you start the tomatoes. You can certainly use homemade biscuits but if I am going to do that much work I’d rather my biscuits stand alone and shine which why I use refrigerated biscuits for this.

Bake the package of biscuits according to package instructions.

Open the three 28-ounce cans of whole stewed tomatoes. Using a pair of kitchen shears roughly cut the whole tomatoes into slightly smaller pieces and pour the entire contents into a large pot. With heat on medium add one stick of butter, a half teaspoon of salt and stir. Let the butter melt into the tomatoes.

When butter is melted break up the cooled biscuits into the tomato mixture. Just crumble up right into the pot. It is up to you how fine you want your crumble. I like it a little more chunky. I find it gives it a more dumpling like texture.

That’s it! Let it simmer on medium-low for 20-30 minutes and it’s ready. You can make this early and just set it aside. It only takes about 10 minutes. For leftovers, reheat this on the stove.

Alternatively, if you add more biscuits it will get thicker. If you do this, add 1/2 cup of cream, bake up a second container of biscuits and crumble it in . Pop it in a 350 degree (F) oven for about 30 minutes and you’ll get something that is very bread pudding-like in texture.