Strata for Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner

There are days when I am not in the mood for traditional dinner fare and so fill the gap with stratas, frittatas, pancakes and French toast. Why not eat one of these delicious things in the evening?

Greg and I prefer stratas, omelets or fritattas, rather than the pancakes the kids beg for. Add a green salad and the meal is complete.

I am most apt to serve breakfast for dinner on those hectic nights when sports schedules, after-school activities, and late meetings make planning a more typical meal tricky. Guess what? No one objects!

Goat Cheese, Pear and Proscuitto Strata

A strata as rich and full flavored as this earns its stripes on the dinner table when paired with a crisp arugula or frisee salad and a glass of wine. I especially like it in the fall and winter when pears are in the markets. If you don’t like goat cheese, substitute mozzarella; if you don’t have proscuitto, use ham. This can be assembled early in the day and popped in the oven when you get home. Serve the leftovers the next morning for breakfast, and if you’re looking for something to make for brunch, look no further.

Serves 8 to 10

1 pound sliced white bread (about 12 slices)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 ripe pears, cored and cut into ½-inch dice

8 large eggs

4 cups whole or lowfat milk

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

6 ounces proscuitto, sliced

6 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

Lightly spray a 13-by-9-by-2-inch baking dish with flavorless vegetable spray. Cut the bread into 1-inch cubes and spread nearly half over the bottom of the pan. Reserve the remaining bread cubes.

In a medium sauté pan, heat the butter over medium heat and when it melts and bubbles, add the pears and sauté for 5 to 6 minutes or until they soften and begin to caramelize. Remove from the heat and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat together the eggs, milk, mustard, thyme, and salt. Season with pepper.

Spread half of the prosciutto, half the cheese, and half the pears over the bread. Spread the remaining bread cubes over these ingredients and then top evenly with the remaining prosciutto, cheese, and pears.

Pour the egg mixture over the strata and press lightly on the bread to submerge it in the liquid so that it soaks evenly. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours and up to 12 hours or overnight.

Take the strata from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Remove the plastic wrap and bake the strata for 45 to 50 minutes or until the center is set and no longer wobbly. Serve warm.

Canned Vs Dried Beans?

How I Learned to Use Canned Beans

In the interest of passing on some culinary wisdom (!), here are my thoughts about beans. I can’t think of anything more comforting on a cold winter’s day than a thick bean soup. Can you?

Time was when I bypassed the cans of cooked beans on the supermarket shelf in favor of packages of dried beans. Hard as pebbles, dried beans require hydrating before they can be cooked, and while this is an easy process, it takes time. Lately I have relaxed and started relying more and more on canned beans.

I still think the texture of beans you soak and cook yourself is slightly better than that of the beans that come from a can, but the difference is slight and in the interest of saving time and making a busy life easier, I use canned beans in most of the recipes in this book.

If you want to soak your own, please do so!  You may have a few sacks of dried beans in the cupboard you want to use up, or you just might prefer to start “from scratch.” If so, figure that 1/2 cup of dried beans (black beans, kidney beans, navy beans, chickpeas) will swell to 11/2 cups after soaking and cooking. This is the equivalent of one 15-ounce can of beans. If you have a one-pound bag of dried beans, they will cook up to equal four 15-ounce cans.

How do you soak beans? Put the dried beans in a large bowl or similar container and cover them with cold water with an inch or two to spare. Let them sit in the water for at least six hours and for as long as overnight. Beans are forgiving and don’t demand a lot of precision at this point.

Once the beans have soaked, at which point they will be visibly plump, drain them and put them in a large pot. Add water or stock (depends on the recipe) to cover by three or four inches (again, the amount will depend on the recipe) and bring to a boil over high heat. Skim any foam that rises to the surface, turn the heat to low, and simmer gently until soft but not mushy. The time depends on the kind of bean but most beans need between 45 and 90 minutes to cook. Lentils, split peas, and black-eyed peas don’t require soaking.