Strata-sphere ................................................................. . . . . .

Ever come home from work with a bundle of left over croissants and some really nice eggs and think "what should I do with all this"?
Maybe I should feel fortunate to have this small problem occasionally. By now I know exactly what to do. I do that Strata.
A Strata is a baked dish originally conceived to deal with leftover stale bread. Stale is the key here as the staleness determines how well the beaten eggs will bind with the bread to create the desired light, pillowy and fluffy texture characteristic of a perfect Strata.
The dish is a combination of stale bread (Im special so I use croissants), fried or lightly blanched veggies, and beaten eggs. Oh! And it has cheese in it. I almost forgot cheese.

C P's Strata 

Ingredients:
About 4 halved, stale croissants
3-5 eggs (depending on your tastes and how much bread you are using)
3 tablespoons Parsely, chopped
Salt and Black Pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil (Extra Virgin ALWAYS)
1 Onion or 2 larger shallots, diced
1 small carrot, diced
1 stalk celery diced
1 clove garlic diced
Main Vegetable - about 10 stalks asparagus chopped into diagonal slices -or- half head cauliflower diced -or- 3 handfuls of good mushrooms chopped
Small glass dry white wine
About 200 grams Comte or Gruyere cheese diced finely or grated

First grease your baking vessel (you want a deep-ish pot or baking dish, pyrex works well). Then cut your stale bread/croissants in a way that they will arrange nicely around the bottom of your baking vessel. Set aside.

Beat eggs together with parsley, black pepper (and if desired a bit of grated parmesan). Set aside.

Preheat oven to about 350f or 200c.

Place oil in pan and set over medium heat. Add in onion, carrot, celery and fry until softened about 5-6 minutes. Then add in the garlic and your main vegetable. Fry until main veggie is just barely soft and then add in the wine. Allow mixture to simmer until the steam coming off the pan no longer stings the nostrils upon sniffing. Salt to taste and then take pan off heat.

Now for the layering.
Pour half of the beaten eggs over the bread/croissants.
Pour half of the fried mixture.
Pour the rest of the eggs in.
Put half of the cheese on.
Pour the rest of the fried mixture on and top with the remaining cheese and fresh grated pepper.

Place in the oven and bake until cheese on top has slightly browned and a fork can be poked into the strata and come out clean. You want a fluffy, slightly airy and light texture. Some like it a bit runny but I prefer moist and fluffy.

Savour with a nice arugula (rocket) salad with a mustard dressing and some ale or nice white wine.








And for the next recipe..... any requests from my friends fans(?) or fam?