Late summer bounty

In my garden right now: rows of beautiful peppery arugula, not that tasteless baby stuff at the grocery store pretending to be arugula. All my herbs and edible flowers are in abundance and my tomatoes are ripening on the plants. I just planted three varieties of golden beefsteaks and one red plum, but we also have two volunteer cherry tomatoes and a tomatillo plant that are thriving and looking better than the ones we planted. We have been enjoying a lot of caprese salads with burrata cheese, which I think is deliciously decadent. But if I have to pick my favourite cheese to have with tomatoes I would choose feta. It’s sharp, tangy, creamy and salty— and tomatoes like salt. I’ve been having BBQ at last once a week, rain or shine and last night I made bruschetta instead of caprese salad. I didn’t put the bruschetta together, instead I served the tomato mixture and the grilled bread separately and let people build their own. I’m obsessed with the yellow plum tomatoes from Laundry Farms and I bought those for the bruschetta mix. You don’t need shallots for a classic bruschetta but I’m just using up my last bag of shallots that I bought from Hagerman’s Farm last year and they are still in pristine condition. I also just finished my garden garlic, which also stores extremely well. This year’s garlic is cured and ready to go. I also love gobs of basil, but you do you.

Grilled tomato bruschetta

1 1/2 cups plum tomatoes, chopped

2 tablespoons shallots, finely chopped

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

2-4 tablespoons basil, finely sliced

20 slices of baguette

1/4 cup balsamic glaze

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Combine in a bowl: tomatoes, shallots, garlic, basil, feta, and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Cover and refrigerate. Brush remaining oil on both sides of the baguette slices, alternatively use olive oil spray instead. Grill over medium heat on BBQ until both sides are toasted a nice golden brown. Top each toast with a generous mound of bruschetta, drizzle with balsamic glaze and season with salt and pepper. Do not salt your mix before as it will get watery if it is salted ahead of time.