not my photo but one from Pinterest with no credit given
This afternoon I had about an hour before the boys arrived for their play date with us and decided that was time enough to make yogurt and to do something with all those bread end pieces I had in the freezer. Now I must share that we buy really good bakery breads and I am loathe to toss the odd slice or the end pieces, so I save them.
I find that these pieces often net me enough to make croutons, French toast and give me an ample supply of bread crumbs, fresh or dried, to use in recipes. Of late however, I've not been able to quite keep up with the supply I had on hand. If a loaf starts to feel dry, into the freezer it goes. I'd recently made a croutons and French toast but here I had loads of bread pieces on hand. I also happen to have a great many eggs at the moment... I decided that a Strata was the perfect dish to use up this excess of good foods that might otherwise go to waste.
Stratas are old fashioned things. Put a bit of sugar in the mix and you have a bread pudding. Leave out the sugar and you typically find yourself with a savory dish, often enough these days served as a breakfast casserole. It's a shame to relegate such a hearty dish to breakfast or brunch.
But let us start at the beginning. A good basic recipe for a Strata: 6 cups bread cubes, 4 eggs, 2 cups of milk, salt and pepper. That's pretty much it! Leave out the salt and pepper and add 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar for a bread pudding...but let me tell you more about the possibilities in a Strata, which generally has shredded cheese included..
A variety of ingredients may be added to this basic recipe and in whatever combination you choose.
Meats: Turkey, Pork or Beef Sausage, cooked chicken or turkey, ham, chorizo
Vegetables: Celery, Onion, Mushrooms, Spinach, Broccoli, Zucchini, Bell Peppers, Tomatoes
Any type of hard or semi hard cheese may be used including, as well as soft cheeses such as goat cheese or diced cream cheese.
I won't share a breakfast strata recipe with you but will tell you that when I make mine I generally add diced mushrooms, sausage, onion and cheddar cheese. I've recently read a recipe that used frozen spinach that had been thawed and squeezed dry, Swiss cheese and ham. I think this sounds quite yummy but I'm on a bit of a spinach kick at the moment.
One of my post Thanksgiving recipes is a strata that calls for diced turkey, red bell pepper, onions and sliced celery with cheddar cheese.
Several years ago, I had the pleasure of eating a so called 'Broccoli Casserole' at a favorite restaurant. I asked for the recipe. It included cooked broccoli and blue cheese dressing in place of the cheese.
Recently I made a French Toast Strata which called for cream cheese cubes and while not sweetened was topped with a cinnamon streusel and then served with a maple syrup drizzle. Nothing much really in the way of ingredients but it was so very good when combined together and was a hit at our breakfast table.
Today I was inspired by that to make a similar sort of recipe for our breakfast this weekend. I divided the ingredients between two 9 inch foil pans. I used the last of the topping I'd made to go on our sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving which I'd also frozen and found while pulling bread pieces from the freezer this morning. I did not add any sugar nor cheese to this one but did season it with vanilla and cinnamon
The beauty of a Strata is that it takes economical foodstuffs and brings them to the table in a most delicious way. I hope that you will try one of these if you haven't made one part of your standard menu. If you are a household of two, you can divide among greased smaller casseroles and you can even freeze them before baking. Just thaw then bake as the recipe suggests.
12 comments:
For years and years I always made a savory strata using basically the same ingredients that you mentioned with the pork sausage, onion, mushrooms, cheddar cheese for our Christmas morning meal along with the pop open tube cinnamon rolls. Everybody loved it and there was never any left over. I haven't made it for a long time because our Christmas family traditions changed when we started celebrating Christmas at my daughter's home on Christmas evening. After reading your post, I am hungry for it, and am planning to make it for a dinner meal (with planned leftovers) for my husband and me. I never make it the exact same way because I don't have a written recipe for it with exact amounts of anything. I just kind of go by how it looks as I put it together.
It sounds like it would be good as a french toast type casserole, too.
Do you layer the bread, liquid, and then other ingredients like a lasagna? Or do you just dump it all in? Bread pieces on top? Sorry if this seems like a silly question, but this seems like such a good idea and I don't want to mess it up! :)
I generally put bread in the greased casserole and toss with cheese and meat or vegetable then pour over the milk and egg mixture. Layering works too if using. The meat and vegetables too. Honestly not much messing up one can do!
Thanks Terri. I am going to give this a try.
Strata is something I've never had.. There is only me here to eat it so I am wondering if leftovers freeze well.. or do they become watery when thawed??
Louise, You can make it up in small pie tins (like frozen chicken pot pie comes in and freeze BEFORE baking, then thaw and bake as usual. I'd do a half recipe or even 1/3 since the measurements are not exact from recipe to recipe.
Terri, thank you so much for this informative post! I did make one strata years ago and it was a hit, but for some reason never made it again. I love the idea of saving end pieces for this. It sounds like quite an economical dish too, which I need more of right now. I shall make note of the basic recipe and try this soon!
I hope you are having a lovely morning. After a winter that so far was looking more like early spring, we have been thoroughly snowed upon and today will be going into negative temps. I’m staying inside! Two of my boys plan on going snowboarding this afternoon. I will insist on thermal under layers and ski masks. Stay warm where you are!
Thank you I have never made one. :) By the way watch what breads you put into that 'uses later' frozen breads. I goofed one year and accidentally added pumpernickel and a bit of rye in there then made a bread pudding. !! It was a strange bread pudding !! Sarah
I keep two bags in the freezer: one for regular bread and savory bagels or English muffins, and one for sweet breads and bagels. The former are for savory strata and the sweets for dessert strata. We don't get that many sweet breads but I belong to this group that provides a continental breakfast once and month and if there are any bagels left they are free for anyone who wants them. It boggles my mind that I always ask and NO ONE takes the leftovers, which are usually berry bagels. Most times I come home with about two dozen bagels. We keep them for breakfast until they start getting stale and then into the dessert strata bag they go!
Sara, that is a good point about the breads.
Mable, what a great idea to keep the obviously sweet breads and the unflavored ones in separate bags.
Karen, This is indeed an economical dish in my opinion. My family was iffy about bread ends and so it was a good use when I had them at home, but here of late John and I often have a bit of bread leftovers that get a bit dry towards the end of the loaf.
Hi Terri - Thank you for sharing this "recipe". I love the flexibility. You mentioned stratas a few times lately and I wondered what and how. I love this idea for using up leftover bits and dabs of bread. Blessings, Shirley in Washington
Shirley, I think that's what I love about stratas. They are very versatile and will use up practically anything you care to toss into the pan when making them.
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