The Frenchman is away for the next two weeks, which means I’m puttering around the house after work, staying up way later than I should, both thrilled by the quiet, atypical aloneness, and simultaneously dreading it. I tell myself that I’ll use the luxurious, stretching evening-time to get extra work done, but this plan usually devolves into Netflix-watching pretty quickly.

We spent this past weekend in Phoenicia, NY for the wedding of good friends. Have you been? It’s lovely, quite literally nestled in the Catskill Mountains, with a few-blocks-long main street and a creek running through it. I woke up early both mornings, thanks to the jet lag I try to keep going as long as possible, and it was the need for sweaters–more than the multitudinous appearance of apples and grapes at the market–that finally made me realize that fall is on its way.

For now though, this in-between time means that I can still eat reckless quantities of peaches and tomatoes, but also that the subway platform doesn’t feel like a sauna sponsored by Hades. It means that, while I’m still hanging on to summer produce, I’m transitioning from raw preparations to heat coaxed ones: folding slumping fruit into cakes, baking zucchini with rice and cheese, simmering fresh beans until soft and soupy. And making these tomatoes.

In France, you can ask the butcher for a pre-made stuffed tomato blend and on our recent visit, my mother-in-law made a batch so delicious, I ate three. I was first inspired by Mimi’s recipe, and then by Deb’s, which works well for vegetarians. I’ve used both red wine-rosemary sausage and duck sausage with good results.

If you don’t like the idea of throwing away the insides of the tomatoes, repurpose them for a batch of gazpacho, or pan con tomate. I like to serve the tomatoes with roasted potatoes, a salad dressed with strong mustard vinaigrette, or bread, for mopping up the juices. They are good, covered in the fridge, for up to 3 days. Serves 4