Spinach Strata

Over the summer I first ventured into the land of fritattas and stratas, but I think we hit the peak this past Friday. Right now, during Lent, vegetarian meals on Friday nights can sometimes get boring, especially when we have the same four vegetarian options for the entire season of Lent. So I've been pushing a bit for different and perhaps, new meals. So it all started with Mom's new issue of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food (which is a v. good magazine, I highly recommend it). In the March issue there is a recipe for a Swiss Chard Strada. We also went online and found a Spinach Strata recipe and kind of combined and made substitutions. Now, we made a few changes, but you'll see.

First the ingredients:
1 day old baguette
7 or 8 eggs ( yes, I know it sounds like a lot, but you don't eat all the eggs yourself)
2 3/4 cups of milk (skim worked fine for us)
salt and pepper
olive oil
2 bunches of baby spinach
6 oz of Gruyere cheese, shredded
nutmeg
couple of cloves of garlic


Spray a 9X13 glass pan or a dutch oven/casserole dish that is deep enough with Pam.
Okay, first you want to clean the spinach and then sautee it in garlic and olive oil, just until it wilts. Set it aside in a bowl.
Cut up the baguette into small pieces. Shred the cheese, preferably in a Cuisinart, unless you are really careful and can use a box grater. Me and my knuckles do not get along with box graters.
Arrange some of the pieces of bagguette on the bottom of the pan. Spread a layer of cheese, then artfully place some spinach over the cheese layer. Season with salt and pepper, as well as a few pinches of nutmeg. Put down more bread, then cheese, then spinach, salt and pepper and nutmeg. Continue in this fashion until all of the bread, cheese and spinach is used. End with just cheese on the top. When we made ours, the baguette peaked through the cheese, and that is a good thing because once it gets cooked it is crunchy and yummy.
Then in a separate bowl beat the eggs and milk together. Pour the egg/milk mixture over the pre-arranged bread/cheese/spinach. Don't worry if the milk and eggs do not come up very high and cover all of the bread.
Then put some Saran wrap over the dish and put it in the refrigerator to sit for a while. The Martha version of the recipe said to put it in the fridge for 10 minutes. However, the Epicurious recipe called for an overnight soak, which is what we followed.
After you have let the casserole soak up some of the egg and milk mixture, take it out of the fridge and let it stand for 30 minutes and preheat your oven to 350. Bake the dish for 45-55 minutes or until it gets puffy and golden on the top.

It was yummy. I promise. I wish I had a picture of it, but you're just going to have to believe me when I say it was good. I also recommend not taking a huge piece because between the cheese, eggs and milk, you have quite a bit of protein. This dish was a really nice, flavorful, and very filling dish, which really switched up the boredom that comes with Lenten meals. Enjoy!