Today’s the last day of September, it’s officially fall, and tomatoes are kind of over. This week’s recipe for French Fridays with Dorie, Deconstructed BLT and Eggs, was the perfect swan song for fresh local tomatoes.

I love the concept of “deconstructed” recipes. The ingredients of a classic dish are reconfigured into a new form. In this case, the diner (or home) favorite of a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich was deconstructed into a salad. The salad started with a bed of arugula lighted coated with vinaigrette. The greens are topped with two forms of tomatoes. The recipe called for cherry tomatoes and sun-dried. Instead, I used a diced fresh tomato and a handful of Dorie’s slow-roasted tomatoes (one of my favorites recipes that we’ve made). Crumbled bacon is sprinkled on top, and then, to me, the pièce de résistance was the croutons sautéed in the bacon fat! Some hard-boiled eggs topped dabbed with mayonnaise finished it off.

This made a great light supper. It got thumbs up all around.

I had some extra croutons left over. I intended to make the salad a second time last night with the other half of the bag of arugula. Unfortunately, I didn’t follow Dorie’s advice about storing greens, and when I got ready to make dinner, I found the arugula was too wet and had spoiled. If you toss the croutons, tomatoes, and bacon with the vinaigrette, you have a delicious panzanella! The eggs would have been a nice topper too, but I didn’t have time to make them the second time around.

You can check out the other FFwD bloggers’ take on Deconstructed BLT and Eggs at the Leave Your Link on the French Fridays with Dorie site. I always find some new creative ideas for next time. To me, that’s half the fun of doing this weekly recipe challenge.

Amazingly, September ends the first year of French Fridays with Dorie. I’m excited to see what’s in store for the beginning of Year 2 in October.