The garden tomatoes are slowly coming tpo an end, but while they’re still around, we’re coming up with more ways to eat them.

Tonight, Victor made a Tomato Galette – layers of sliced tomatoes under crisp and crunchy croutons. It was pure perfection!

He took a bunch of yellow heirloom tomatoes and sliced them and then layered them in a small casserole dish with thinly-sliced shallots, a bit of shredded quattro formaggio cheese blend, salt & pepper, topped with homemade croutons from the Italian Bread I made yesterday.

The croutons were bread cubes mixed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder – baked in the oven until crunchy and toasted. Since toast is one of my most favorite food groups, he made enough for me to snack on, as well!

It all went into a 350°F oven for 45 minutes.

Crispy crunchy croutons atop perfect tomatoes – seasoned simply, because they’re so delicious on their own they don’t need a lot. And the homemade croutons made the dish!

I made the bread to go along with a beef stew I had made.

I make stew based on a Boeuf Bourguignon recipe I’ve been making for years. It started off as a quick version of Julia Child’s classic and has just morphed over the years. The constants are beef, bacon, brandy, a bottle of red wine, and beef stock – the rest changes to suit what’s in the kitchen at the time… It slow-cooks in the oven for several hours and comes out great every time.

This really has been the year of the tomato and I’m going to be sad to see it end.

But it ain’t over, yet!