Sometimes known as a breakfast casserole, a strata is a great brunch dish. If ever I’m too late to the shop to pick up a fresh baguette, I buy a couple of bake-at-home ones and cook them as soon as I get home to give them enough time to cool down before making this dish. Strata goes really well with a couple of sausages on the side.
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Timings
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes
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Serves
4-6
Ingredients
- 50g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
- 1 large baguette, cut into 3cm-thick slices
- 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 150g frozen spinach (around 4 blocks), defrosted
- 6 eggs, beaten
- 100ml milk
- 1 tbsp dried mixed herbs
- 100g cheddar cheese, grated
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas mark 4.
- Grease a medium-sized ovenproof baking dish with butter.
- Butter one side of each baguette slice.
- Arrange the bread in the baking dish so that one long side of the crust is touching the base of the dish.
- In a jug or bowl, combine the tinned tomatoes, spinach, eggs, milk, herbs, half the cheese and a good seasoning of salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Pour this mixture over the bread slices, ensuring the spinach is evenly distributed. You can also tuck some spinach in between the bread, if you like.
- Scatter the remaining cheese over the top and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the cheese is golden and the bread has puffed up.
Recipe from The Tinned Tomatoes Cookbook by Samuel Goldsmith (Murdoch Books, £18.99)