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Prep time
12 hours
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Cook time
45 minutes
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Serves
4
Author Notes
This pizza party strata is made with cubes of garlic bread, pepperoni, mozzarella, and dollops of marinara sauce bathed in an eggy custard. It's finished with grated Parm, snipped basil, and a few glugs of EVOO (optionally! but recommended). Move over Bagel Bites, there's a new way to pizza any time! Get creative and swap out the pepperoni for your favorite pizza toppings, from mushroom and olives to pineapple and soppressata.
The seasoned, garlic-buttered bread you can buy ready-to-toast at the supermarket is perfect here. If you’re looking for a homemade recipe, try this Garlickiest Garlic Bread; just stop at step three, then cube it up.
Strata is a cross between bread pudding and frittata—eggier than bread pudding, it easily slides into frittata’s savory territory. The recipe is highly adaptable, working with any stale bread from bagels to biscuits, and can accommodate any number of mix-ins, for the perfect fridge clean-out casserole. For best results, assemble it the night before so the bread can soak up the egg-milk mixture, then bake it in the morning for an easy and impressive brunch centerpiece.
This recipe makes enough to fill a high-sided 10-inch skillet, 2-quart baking dish, or 9x9-inch brownie pan. If you need to scale the recipe up to feed a bigger group, feel free to double the quantities and bake for an hour in a 9x13-inch casserole dish instead. For a smaller portion, you can divide the recipe in half and bake the strata for 30 minutes in a 6-inch skillet.
Want to get corny? Try this Cornbread and Cheddar Strata recipe. And read more about this strata technique here, so you have the confidence to take it off-script. —Sohla El-Waylly
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Ingredients
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1 tablespoon
extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to garnish
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1/2
large loaf (12 ounces) garlic bread, homemade or store-bought, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 6 cups lightly packed), see Author Notes
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6
large eggs
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2 cups
whole milk
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1 1/2 teaspoons
Diamond Crystal kosher salt (or 3/4 teaspoon Morton’s kosher salt)
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1/4 to 1/2 teaspoons
red pepper flakes
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1/2 teaspoon
dried oregano
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1 1/2 ounces
sliced pepperoni (about 1/3 cup)
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8 ounces
part-skim mozzarella, coarsely grated
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1/2 cup
marinara sauce, plus more to serve
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Grated Parmesan or pecorino and fresh basil, to serve (optional)
Directions
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Heat the oven to 350°F. Evenly grease a high-sided 10-inch skillet, 2-quart baking dish, or 9x9-inch brownie pan with olive oil.
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Spread the cubed garlic bread on a rimmed sheet pan and bake until lightly toasted, 10 to 12 minutes.
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Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk the eggs until no streaks of whites remain. Add the milk, salt, red pepper flakes, and oregano and whisk to combine. Add the pepperoni and all but a handful of the shredded mozzarella. Mix with a rubber spatula to combine.
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Add the toasted garlic bread and fold into egg mixture until moistened and combined. Scrape the mixture into the prepared pan. Dollop big spoonfuls of marinara on top, garnish with remaining mozzarella.
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You can bake right away or, for best results, cover and chill in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. (If chilling for later, let the strata hang out at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes before baking.) Bake the strata at 350°F until puffed, golden brown around the edges, and set in the center, about 45 minutes. (If the cheese isn’t brown enough, broil for 2 to 3 minutes until golden.) Garnish with grated Parmesan or pecorino cheese, a drizzle of olive oil, and torn basil if desired. Let cool 10 minutes before serving alongside additional warm marinara sauce.
Sohla El-Waylly is a Food52 Resident, sharing new riffable recipes every month that'll help you get creative in the kitchen. Watch her cook on YouTube in her new series, Off-Script With Sohla. Before she started developing fun recipes for home cooks, she worked as a chef in N.Y.C. and L.A., briefly owning a restaurant in Brooklyn with her husband and fellow chef, Ham El-Waylly. She lives in the East Village with Ham, their two dogs, and cat. Find out what else she's up to on Instagram @sohlae
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