Sunday Breakfast Strata

I assembled today's breakfast yesterday early afternoon.  I made the pesto the day before and frankly didn't totally care for it but in this strata it worked out great.  This strata was creamy, moist, cheesy with the bright flavors of summer.  I haven't had a lot of luck this year with store bought tomatoes.  They are not as flavorful as my "Sweet Million" volunteer garden tomatoes but for this dish I needed slices.  Since the final layer was tomatoes however the baking process sweetened them.  Next time I'll do two things differently when it comes to the tomatoes.  Slice all 4 tomatoes to keep the prettiest ones for the top layer and use at least one more so that the top layer has them even overlapping unlike shown here.  They were just so tasty and sweet after baking that more will be better.

The original recipe came from Cuisine at Home, #58 2006, pg. 21.  I have been cooking a bunch of recipes out of them ever since I sorted them into seasons and put the summer seasons on my coffee table.  This way I can cook based on what is fresh in the stores.  I didn't make a ton of changes to the original beyond making my own pesto and using non fat milk.  The recipe called for a 2-3 quart round dish but my 2 qt. was too shallow, one layer and it was full.  It needed a deeper dish so I used my oval 3qt. dish which is 5.5" deep and 12⅝”L. 9¼”W and I still had to press it down in order to pour the egg mixture over the top.

SUNDAY SUMMER STRATA
1 loaf (1-1.5 lbs.) sourdough bread, sliced ½” slices then cubed
8 oz. cream cheese, tiny cubes
½ lb. (8 oz.) ball fresh mozzarella, tiny cubes
¾ C. pesto
12 slices prosciutto, thinly sliced and torn in pieces
6 roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
Whisk, pour over strata, chill:
5 eggs
1 ½ C. non fat milk
½ t. salt
½ t. coarse ground black pepper

Slice the bread into half inch slices and then cube.  Cube the cream cheese and mozzarella into tiny cubes and slice the tomatoes.  Coat a 3qt. at least 3.5 inch deep glass baking  with a good layer of nonstick spray or oil.

Layer the following in order given:

• Half the bread slices
• Half the cream cheese, cubed or spread on bread
• Half the mozzarella
• Half the pesto, spread
• 8 slices of prosciutto
• Third of the tomato slices, the uglier ones first
• Salt and Pepper
• Repeat with remaining ingredients, once more

Lay the second layer of tomatoes, in overlapping circles unlike the first layer when you just covered the prosciutto.  Start with a tomato in the middle then make larger, overlapping circles until the entire layer is covered, unlike my first attempts (opposite page).  Press down.  Whisk together the eggs, milk, salt and pepper.  Slowly pour over the tomatoes.   Cover and refrigerate overnight or for at least 2 hours.

When ready to cook, remove from the refrigerator 20-30 minutes before baking.  Bake 350°F for 1 hour-1 hour 15 minutes, till eggs are set.  A knife inserted should come out clean.  Let rest for 10 minutes.  If your dish is very full place a sheet of foil under the dish to catch the drips.

Note:  Since the cream cheese doesn't really melt you want to make sure the pieces are small so you get an even layer and not a big bite of cream cheese.  Unlike the above picture shown here add enough tomatoes to the top layer so it is covered, overlapping if necessary (see pictures below).  Here I used 1 pound which equaled 4 tomatoes.  I've increased it to 6 with 8 I had leftover tomatoes but it depends on the size of your pan and tomatoes.  The top layer of tomatoes are sweater because of the baking process so I wanted more.

PESTO:  I tried two new pesto's the day before and I used the one I didn't like here because by the next day it mellowed out and tasted better and it worked perfectly in this dish.  You can buy it already made, use my new recipe or my standard basil pesto recipe if you like.  I'll post those recipes next.  The second new pesto I made with the soy sauce, wouldn't work here.  It was too strong from the soy but it will work great with the fish I'll be cooking this week.

Update:  When I made this for Easter Sunday Brunch I did a few things differently, fixed the tomato problem but I think 6 should be plenty.  I had a bowl of leftover sliced tomatoes.  I also only used 12 slices of prosciutto and next time I will cube the bread so it is easier to scoop and serve.  Here are some process pictures.