Vegetable Strata

Vegetable Strata

I’ve always liked the idea of a breakfast strata – a hearty, cheesy, eggy breakfast casserole that I can assemble the day before I need it and bake the next day.  Perfect for occasions when time is at a premium but I want to serve something a little special.  Maybe I have friends coming for brunch.  Or house guests.  Or it’s Christmas morning and I need to serve a holiday breakfast that will keep the wolf from the door while I prepare a (very) late Christmas lunch.  And just maybe the grownups need a little something to soak up all the Baileys they put in their Christmas coffee.

But, while a strata is a great idea in theory, I’ve often found the reality to be somewhat underwhelming.  Awash in cheese and egg, strata often seems to pass hearty and go straight to heavy, stodgy even.  Yes, it soaks up the Baileys.  It also seems to head straight for the pit of the stomach and soak up any little bit of energy one has left after endless rounds of present opening and Baileys coffee.  This is not a good thing.  There’s no time for napping on Christmas morning – I have a turkey to roast.

But still I persist.  And I think I’ve finally come up with a strata that doesn’t send everyone straight to the couch.  First, this is one time I’d keep it vegetarian (though certainly not suitable for vegans, what with all the egg, cheese and milk).  I love sausage and bacon as much as the next person, probably more, but leave them out of this strata.  Serve them on the side if you feel it isn’t breakfast without pork.

Second, I use a slightly higher ratio of bread to custard and give the strata at least 12 hours in the refrigerator.  This gives the bread plenty of time to soak up the egg and milk and makes for a puffier, lighter strata.  Lastly, I use Gruyére instead of the usual Cheddar cheese.  It’s got that earthy, assertive twang and doesn’t throw off the grease that Cheddar sometimes does.  (Supermarket Cheddar that is, you’d probably get fine results with a good sharp farmhouse Cheddar.)

I made this strata for a Christmas brunch on the balcony this past weekend and served it alongside smoked salmon, bagels with vegetable cream cheese and a gingered fruit salad.  No pork this time.  And plenty of Bloody Marys and mimosas.  Nobody seemed too desperate for a nap afterward.  But I had one anyway.

Vegetable Strata

You won’t need the mushroom soaking water for the strata but it’s full of flavor so don’t throw it out.  Refrigerate or freeze it and use the mushroom water in your next soup, stew or sauce.  To determine if the strata is done, insert a small knife carefully in the middle of the strata and check that it’s cooked through.  And feel free to play around with the combination of vegetables.  Just make sure that any particularly watery vegetables get a good sautè so they won’t throw off too much juice in the strata, which could make it runny.

1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms

A 10-ounce bag of fresh spinach, chopped

1 medium onion, peeled and diced

1/2 a red bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced

1 fat clove of garlic, peeled and finely minced

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon salt

freshly ground black pepper

a grating of fresh nutmeg, about 1/4 teaspoon

10 cups cubed bread (I used sourdough but you could use French or Italian also)

6 ounces Gruyère cheese, grated

9 large eggs

2 3/4 cups whole milk

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

a dash of Tabasco sauce

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the onion and red pepper and cook until slightly softened, about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and mushrooms and cook for 2 or 3 minutes, then add the spinach and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt.  Cook until the spinach is wilted and any water given off by the vegetables is evaporated.  Grate in some fresh nutmeg and black pepper, then remove from the heat and let the vegetable mixture cool.

Butter a 9×13-inch ceramic baking dish and spread half the bread cubes in the dish.  Cover evenly with the spinach mixture and then half of the grated cheese.  Cover with the remainder of the bread and then sprinkle the top evenly with the rest of the cheese.

Whisk the eggs in a large mixing bowl.  Then add the milk, mustard, the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt and another grating of black pepper and nutmeg.  Whisk until the mixture is well combined and pour over the casserole.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, preheat the oven to 350° and remove the strata from the refrigerator (it needs to stand at room temperature about 30 minutes).

Bake the strata, uncovered, on a rack set in the middle of the oven until puffed, brown and cooked through, about 1 hour.  Let the strata stand for 5 minutes before serving.  Serves 10.