Before we left for the game very early on Saturday morning, I baked a new “egg bake” type recipe to “tide us over” (as my Mom used to say) until our tailgate meal.
I looked through a number of recipes online on Friday night but none had all the components I wanted to use. And I did NOT want to jump in the car and drive to the grocery store at 9pm to buy more ingredients! (I’m all about using whatever you have in the refrigerator.)
Since I am a Thanksgiving stuffing lover (it’s my FAVORITE part of the meal) I decided to make a strata. It’s basically bread stuffing with all the rest of the stuff you love stirred in and baked. So here is the dish I created using items I found in Nick’s refrigerator that night. (You know the drill…my measurements are NOT written in stone. So EXPERIMENT and make it your own!!!)
SAUSAGE AND SPINACH STRATA
1 loaf French bread (torn or cut into pieces)
1 1/2 lbs. pork sausage
1 onion diced
2 cloves garlic (optional)
4 T. butter
8 cups fresh spinach (more or less to taste…or sub a box of frozen)
1 box fresh mushrooms
12-15 eggs whisked together
2 C. milk or Half and Half (or mixed like I did)
Approx. 2 cups of Cheese of your choice
***(I used fresh mozzerella and some shredded white chedder/mozzerella blend)
Salt and Pepper
2 T. Dijon mustard (more or less…or omit if you’re not brave enough to try it)
Fresh parsley, chopped (absolutely optional…but I had some so I used it.)
METHOD
Spray baking dish with cooking spray and set aside. Tear bread into pieces and put into baking dish. (Use enough bread to almost fill the baking dish…and USE THE CRUST…It’s the BEST part for this dish!)
In a large skillet, saute onion, garlic and sliced mushrooms in the butter and remove from pan, saving all the pan juices. In that same skillet, brown the sausage and break up chunks. Drain and cool.
If using fresh spinach, dump into bowl and microwave until it wilts and gives off water. Cool and squeeze dry. Chop and set aside. (If using frozen, just microwave until it thaws and drain and squeeze dry. Chop and set aside.)
In a large mixing bowl mix ALL ingredients (except bread) and pour over bread in the baking dish. Mix with a spatula and press down to saturate all the bread chunks. I refrigerated overnight to allow the bread to soak up all the yummy egg custard goodness.
PREHEAT OVEN TO 350 to 375 DEGREES AND BAKE FOR APPROX. ONE HOUR. (I set the baking dish on a larger cookie sheet in case it spilled over since the bread in the recipe tends to “puff up” during baking. Mine didn’t spill over…but yours might. And nobody likes to clean their ovens…right??)
COOKING TIP: REMOVE from the refrigerator at least an hour before baking or it will take longer to bake! (I got up at 4am to get it out of the refrigerator to let it sit until 6am so it would be done when we wanted to eat it at 7am. And YES…I am INSANE)
If you don’t want to develop insomnia over your breakfast, just pull it out of the refrigerator and stick it DIRECTLY in the oven at 350 to 375 degrees and allow UP TO 1 1/2 hours to bake. You’ll know it’s done when a knife inserted in the middle of the pan comes out clean…not covered with scrambled egg mixture. But don’t overbake it either…You get the picture, I’m sure!
And YES…it was YUMMY.
(Let me know what ingredients YOU use to make this recipe your OWN…)
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