The breakfast casserole genre frustrates me. On the one hand, what’s not to love? All the things that make breakfast feel traditionally American—eggs, meat, cheese, bread—get tossed together and baked in a streamlined, easy-Sunday-morning, one-dish-to-wash kind of way. Plus, breakfast casseroles are ideal for entertaining because you can assemble them the night before and bake them the next morning while you shove your family’s mess in a closet before your guests arrive.
But more often than not, I’m let down by the breakfast casseroles I encounter. They seem lazy rather than convenient. The ingredients, although clearly baked as one, somehow taste distinct and confused at the same time. They’re like a bedroom with a bed, dresser, side table, and chair that needs a rug to tie the room together.
In my version of the breakfast casserole, Red Weapons are that rug. They bring juiciness that mingles with milk and eggs to create a near-hollandaise effect. And they provide acid where you wouldn’t think it belongs. It’s that bring surprise, that acidic pucker, that pulls you back for another bite and makes my take on this genre one that does not disappoint.
Recipe information
Yield
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat your oven to 350°F. In a 12-inch ovenproof skillet, brown the sausage over medium heat. You want hunks of moist sausage suspended in the finished dish, so take care not to overcook or over-crumble it this go- round. Scoop the sausage out of the skillet and transfer to a bowl large enough to hold all the ingredients. Go about wilting the spinach with ½ teaspoon of the salt
in the same skillet. Squeeze as much liquid out of the spinach as you can without much trouble and transfer to the bowl with the sausage. Add the bread, cheese, and roasted red peppers.Step 2
In a smaller bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, cream, and remaining 1 teaspoon salt till homogenous. Stir the Red Weapons into the egg mixture, then pour that into the big bowl with the sausage and other stuff. Stir it up and dump everything back into the skillet.
Step 3
At this point you could refrigerate the breakfast casserole overnight or you can go right to the business of baking it. Either way, whenever you’re ready, slide the skillet onto the middle rack of your oven and bake for 1 hour, until the top is crisp and browned in spots.
Recipe notes
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