Right before the first frost, we harvested all of our tomatoes off of the plants as much as we could. I got a whole bunch of San Marzano tomatoes, dried them, and now have this lovely batch of sun dried tomatoes to use up. My husband made two loaves of bread and voila! I knew I was making strata.

Summer Harvest Strata

• 1 loaf of stale artisanal style sourdough bread/peasant’s bread, cut into squares or ripped in small chunks
• 1 can of evaporated milk
• 4 eggs
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 5-6 sun dried tomatoes, diced
• 4 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced
• 1/2 bag of frozen spinach
• 1 roasted red pepper, diced
• 3 tablespoons pesto
• 1 teaspoon better than bouillon
• Your choice of cheese, mozzarella, pepperjack, feta, etc.
• Salt and pepper

Overnight prep: Mix together the evaporated milk and eggs in a medium sized bowl. Dunk the bread in batches and place in an 8×12 pan. Drizzle the remainder of the milk and eggs over top of the bread once all bread has been soaked. Cover the pan in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight in order for the bread to soak up the custard.

If you would like to prepare the entire strata now before allowing it to soak overnight, you can, otherwise the vegetable and cheese layering can be done in the morning.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Melt butter on a frying pan and sauté onions. Once they are semi-translucent, add the diced roasted red pepper and sun dried tomatoes. After a minute or two, add the minced garlic and cook until fragrant, around 30-45 seconds. Add the better than bouillon paste and spinach and cook until the moisture has mostly dissipated.

After the bread has soaked overnight, put it in a large mixing bowl to properly distribute the vegetables. Place the cooked vegetables over top, throw a pinch of salt and pepper in, and fold everything together gently. In the previously used 8×12 pan, alternate between layering the bread vegetable mixture and cheese and pesto in small spoonfuls.

Bake strata for 40 minutes.

Allow the strata to set and cool for around 10 minutes before cutting in and enjoying!