Strata My Favorite Breakfast Casserole

Strata is a family favorite at my house. What the heck is strata? It’s like a breakfast casserole, made of bread and eggs, layered with ingredients like onions, mushrooms, ham and cheese. I also like spinach or asparagus on my strata, and sometimes substitute sausage for ham. I think I first saw strata on NBC’s Today Show with Oprah’s chef, Art Smith. Subsequently, I have seen other stratas, also on the Today Show. Prep time is pretty quick, then sit back and read the paper while you wait, or watch the Today Show!

Strata is a good way for my family to use leftover bread in a tasty way. There are three adults in our household. When we have hamburgers, hot dogs &/or brats, we may use 3 to 5 buns. Then we may not have burgers or dogs again for weeks. So we have lots of leftover buns. And even when we eat sandwiches regularly, such as taking them to work, we never eat the “butt” pieces.

After our first strata, we unanimously declared this breakfast casserole a family favorite. Now I take leftover bread, cut it into cubes or tear it, and put it in the freezer for future stratas. The greater the diversity in the types of bread, the better. Ciabatta, croissants, Texas toast, anything goes.

4 to 6 cups leftover bread, cut into cubes or torn into pieces

10 large eggs, divided 7/5

1 cup milk or cream

8 oz grated cheddar cheese, grated parmesan cheese, sliced Swiss cheese, sliced cream cheese, or combination

4 to 6 oz of diced ham (I use sandwich “boiled ham”, or leftover Christmas ham) or sausage cut into rounds (such as brats, Italian sausage, or brown and serve links)

1 large onion, diced

8 oz mushrooms, sliced (optional)

1 can diced tomatoes, well drained or 8 to 12 sundried tomatoes, cut into pieces (optional)

10-12 asparagus spears or ½ bag baby spinach

1- Spray or butter a 9” X 13” baking dish.

2- Crack open 7 eggs into a bowl and beat. Add cream or milk, and beat to combine.

3- Add bread cubes to cover the bottom of the dish.

4- Pour egg and milk mixture over the bread cubes. Stir to coat. Let sit 20 minutes for the mixture to soak into the bread. One chef on the Today Show lets the bread and egg mixture sit in the refrigerator overnight.

5- Add a layer of shredded cheese or sliced cheese. 

6- Sauté onions and layer over your breakfast casserole. 

7- Sauté mushrooms, just to “sweat” them a bit.  Layer over casserole. 

8- Wilt spinach in a skillet.  Add in a layer to your casserole.

9- Alternatively, if you use asparagus instead of spinach, cut in 1 ½” pieces.  Sauté in pan a few minutes. 

10- Add cooked diced ham, or sausage rounds. 

11- Add tomatoes. 

12- Layer with cheese. 

13- Beat remaining 5 eggs and pour over the top of the strata. 

14- Bake at 350º about 45 minutes. 

I make strata in a corning dish, approximately 10” X 13”.  I crack the eggs directly into the corning dish and beat, then add the milk, then the bread. 

The pictures are from the strata I prepared tonight.  I used 10 eggs initially instead of 7, and 1 ½ cups of milk because I had about 6 to 8 cups of bread.  I did not have cream, and used 2 percent milk.  I put slices of Swiss cheese over the egg and bread mixture. 

I didn’t have mushrooms, but had fresh spinach and onions.  I used sun dried tomatoes that were particularly hard, so cut them into pieces and soaked them in water for about 20 minutes.  I had 2 leftover grilled bratwursts that I cut into pieces.  I topped the strata with shredded mild cheddar cheese, then the remaining 5 eggs.  I have made strata with slices of cream cheese which was also good.  

I wanted my strata to look nice and symmetrical for my photos, but usually I only put spinach and mushrooms on one side, since my sister doesn’t like them.  It’s kinda like pizza, you can have two halves that are different. 

Try a nice strata breakfast casserole and let me know how it turns out! 

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