Patricia Wells is one of my favorite Americans in France (the other is Susan Hermann Loomis, duh, and can you believe they are friends? How much would you love to go to that dinner party?). She is the patron saint of all things delicious, elegant, and Frenchified, and in her new cookbook, Vegetable Harvest, she gives us innumerable ways to put the season's last tomatoes to good use. Here we try two super simple, creative dishes, and in the end we come to the conclusion we knew from the beginning: we heart Patricia.

Heirloom Tomato Salad
Serves 4
2 plump, moist vanilla beans
2 limes, preferably organic
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Fine sea salt
3 large, firm ripe red heirloom tomatoes (about 2 lbs.)
Fleur de sel
Freshly ground black pepper

1. One day before serving the salad, prepare the vanilla dressing: flatten the vanilla beans and cut in half lengthwise. With a small spoon, scrape out the seeds and place them in a jar. (Reserve the pods for another use.) Zest the limes, reserving the zest in a another small covered jar. Juice the limes and add, along with the oil and the salt, to the jar with vanilla seeds. Shake to blend. Cover and refrigerate.

2. At serving time, rinse, core, and peel the tomatoes. Cut them crosswise into 1/2 inch-thick slices. Drizzle each of the 4 chilled plates with a touch of the vanilla dressing. Arrange the tomato slices side by side on the plates. Drizzle with more vanilla dressing. Sprinkle with lime zest, fleur de sel, and pepper.  Serve.

Cherry Tomato and Black Olive Salad
Serves 6
4 cups cherry tomatoes, preferably a mix of red, yellow, and green varieties
3 oz. fresh goat's milk cheese, cubed
20 ripe black olives, pitted and halved
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, cut into chiffonade
2 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice, or to taste
Fleur de sel
Freshly ground black pepper

Stem and halve the tomatoes. In a large bowl, combine the ingredients and toss gently to blend. Taste for seasoning.

Recipes reprinted from Vegetable Harvest: Vegetables at the Center of the Plate by Patricia Wells, published by William Morrow/An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, $34.95.