A strata is a baked and layered egg dish that is often made of milk, bread, eggs and cheese but can include vegetables and or meat. Unlike bread pudding the strata is layered instead of all mixed up like a forking baked pudding. The strada sits in the refrigerator over night so the bread parts get custardy. Here is my recipe for a South West Style Spicy Vegetable Strata. This strata comes out deliciously flavorful, a little spicy, cheesy, light and fluffy almost like a forking soufflé.

Ingredients Makes about 10 servings

2 cups of chopped zucchini (I used local Mexican Zucchini)

1 scant cup of scallion whites

1 garlic clove minced

2 hot roasted hatch chilies with stem and seeds removed. (mine were super hot but mellowed just right in this dish. Yours might differ).  If you don’t keep hatch chilies in your freezer for year long use then use jalapeños to your liking I’d suggest about 2 depending on size and heat)

1 red bell pepper (remove stem & seeds) chopped

1 green bell pepper (remove stem and seeds) chopped

1/2 red onion chopped

3 Tablespoons butter

about 10 twist of fresh ground sea salt

about 10 twist of fresh ground black pepper

9 whole eggs

4 cups of nonfat milk (Usually when I use a lot of cheese or butter I try to balance with nonfat milk)

8 oz. pepper jack cheese (shredded)

8 oz. sharp cheddar cheese (shredded)

10 oz. jalapeño cheese bread cut up (I purchased from Sprouts It’s spicy with jalapeño)

5 1/2 oz. corn tortillas torn up

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Some nonstick spray for your pan and some to put on foil cover.

Day 1 Directions

Melt the butter in a fry pan on medium high heat and add all the vegetables and heat till they are soft. Add fresh ground salt and pepper and remove from burner and let cool.

Mix well or whip up the eggs with milk and salt and pepper and set to the side.

Get out your pan and lightly spray it with nonstick spray.

Your first layer is about 1/3 of the bread and about 1/3 of the tortillas torn on pieces.

Now spread on about 1/3 of the vegetables.

Next is about 1/3 of the cheese.

Add about 1/3 of the egg/milk mixture and keep layering the same way until you are done. tortillas/bread, vegetables, cheese, milk mixture and tortillas/bread, vegetables, cheese, milk mixture.

Cover with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator.

Day two Directions

Take Strata out of the refrigerator, set oven to 350 on bake and let the strata sit out about a half hour to warm slightly. Remove plastic wrap and loosely cover with foil that has been sprayed with nonstick oil to prevent sticking. The strata needs to be in the oven 45 minutes covered. After 45 minutes remove the foil.

At this point your strata will NOT BE DONE YET and needs to go back in the oven for about 35 minutes uncovered.

After around 35 minutes it should look like this.

In a few minutes you can dig in.