Shelly's Recipe

LORRAINE STRATA

Category: Breakfast Casseroles

1 loaf, soft french or italian bread, cut into cubes
2 tablespoons butter
2 medium onions, minced
1 cup of white wine
10 ounces good quality bacon, cooked, drained and chopped into bite sized pieces (not thick cut, as the texture suffers in this type of cooking)
12 eggs
3 1/2 cups whole milk
8 ounces Gruyere, finely shredded and divided in half

Coat a 9x13 inch glass pan with nonstick cooking spray. Dry the cubed bread in the oven at 200 degrees for 30-40 minutes. (You could also leave the bread out for several hours to let it firm up a bit.) Melt the butter over medium heat, add the onion cook until softened, 4-6 minutes. Add the wine and cook until reduced by at least half. Turn off the heat and add the milk.

Beat the eggs in a very large bowl and then slowly whisk in the milk and onion mixture.
Season with salt and pepper. Add the bread, bacon and one half of the cheese to the egg
mixture, stirring well to distribute everything, and pour into the glass pan. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing the mixture down into the bread. At this point the strata can be left in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours.

Turn the oven to 325, once it has preheated, bake the strata for 70 minutes. After this,
begin checking to see if the strata is puffy and lightly browned every 5 minutes or so.
Allow it to rest on a cooling rack for 3-4 minutes after removing from the oven. Slice into squares and serve!