Egg, cheese and sausage strata (breakfast casserole)

Easier than a quiche or frittata, this make-ahead dish frees you up to enjoy visiting with brunch guests. Some stratas are heavy on bread, but this one is more like a crustless quiche. Feel free to adjust the strata fillings for whatever ingredients you have on hand.

Ingredients

• 1 pound sausage (3/4 lb is also plenty)
• 6 eggs
• 1 teaspoon ground mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper, or to taste
• 2 cups milk
• 2 slices bread, cubed (can use more for thicker casserole; this amount will give you a more custardy texture)
• 1 cup cheddar cheese, grated

Directions

1. Saute sausage until well browned, breaking up meat with spoon.
2. In large bowl, beat eggs with salt, pepper and ground mustard.
3. Add milk; mix well.
4. Butter 2-quart (eg 8″x8″) baking dish.
5. Add bread cubes evenly in baking dish.
6. Sprinkle sausage over bread cubes.
7. Sprinkle grated cheese over sausage.
8. Pour egg mixture into baking dish. Poke down any floating bread cubes to make sure egg mixture gets absorbed.
9. Cover baking dish and refrigerate overnight.
10. Remove strata from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
11. Bake strata for 50-60 minutes, until browned on top, not jiggly in the center, and knife inserted in center comes out clean (if in doubt, bake a few minutes longer). Let stand 10 minutes before serving. The strata will be puffy when it comes out of the oven and settles down as it cools.

Serves 4-6 adults.

Notes

• 1.5x proportions for a 3-quart (9″x11″) baking dish: 1 pound sausage (also fine; or 1 1/2 pound), 9 eggs, 1 1/2 teaspoons ground mustard, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1/3 teaspoon pepper, 3 cups milk, 3 slices bread, 1 1/2 cups cheese.
• 2x proportions for 4-qt baking dish: 1 1/2 pounds sausage, 12 eggs, 2 teaspoons ground mustard, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, 4 cups milk, 4 slices bread, 2 cups cheese.
• Like quiche and frittata, this egg dish takes well to all kinds of meat or vegetable fillings, so feel free to get creative. The important thing is to make sure vegetables are cooked/sauteed first, and that any meat that requires precooking, eg bacon or sausage, is browned and drained first.

Here’s a link back to the post and pictures.