Recipe: Strata Filled with Cheese, Spinach and Tomato

A strata is a savory bread pudding and a great brunch dish. Tip from Samuel (author of the book Tinned Tomatoes): if you’re too late to buy fresh baguette from the store, buy a few bake-at-home baguettes. Bake them as soon as you get home, so they have enough time to cool before you start making this dish. And if you’d also like to eat some meat with it, strata also goes very well with sausages.

• Preheat the oven to 180 °C, or a fan oven to 160 °C. Grease a medium-sized baking dish with some butter.
• Spread butter on one side of each slice of baguette. Place the slices of baguette in the baking dish so that one of the long crust edges is always resting on the bottom of the baking dish.

• In a measuring jug or bowl, mix the canned tomatoes with the spinach, eggs, milk, Provençal herbs, half of the cheese and plenty of salt and pepper.
• Pour the spinach and tomato mixture over the baguette and make sure the spinach is evenly distributed over the baguette. You can also tuck some spinach between the slices of baguette, if you like.
• Sprinkle the remaining cheese over it and bake the strata in the hot oven for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the cheese is golden brown.