Goat Cheese Strata with Peppers & Onions

Honestly, I don't know why there aren't more dinner strata recipes out there in the world. In addition to being tasty, stratas are easy - in fact, that's a big part of their appeal! The notes below are included to give you a couple of options for variations, and to help you figure out how best to bake and/or reheat the dish, should you desire to prep or make this in advance.

The vegetables, herbs, and red wine could work with a pretty wide variety of cheeses, so feel free to try different ideas out.  I do think that the goat cheese is the most important cheese in this recipe and (assuming you like goat cheese), I'd be inclined to leave that one alone.  There's a fair bit more leeway with the Emmental cheese however. Emmental is a firm Swiss cheese, originally from (surprise) Emmental, Switzerland.  It's very popular and fairly widely available, and is frequently imitated outside of Switzerland.  Emmental-style cheeses are made in other parts of Europe, and North American 'Swiss' style cheeses are broadly similar.  All of these will work nicely in place of true Emmental. Other nutty, firm aged cheeses would also work nicely. Gruyere, Jarlsberg, Maasdam, or aged (not young) Fontina are all excellent examples that would be at home in this dish.  If you're looking for a lighter recipe with a lower fat content, you could swap in mozzarella (which has nearly half the fat of Emmental).  Mozzarella tastes quite different from Emmental and other Swiss-style cheeses, but it is a nice, mild, melty cheese to use in a strata.

Lastly, I will note that this recipe is actually less cheesy than many other strata recipes.  Now, I love me some cheese, but I really didn't want to go overboard in this recipe, as there are a lot of flavours going on here.  I found it just cheesy enough, but if you're used to a particularly gooey strata, you might consider adding more of one or both cheese types.

Many strata recipes recommend baking covered (i.e. with tinfoil), then finishing uncovered. I found that unnecessary, at least for this particular recipe.  The actual baking time will vary a little depending on your oven, so I do recommend that you keep an eye on it and test it by giving the pan a bit o a shake.  If it wobbles a lot in the center, it's not done.  You can also gently pierce the center with a small knife, pressing some of the strata to one side to see how liquidy the mixture is.

If you're planning to prep your strata the night before you'll want to take it out of the fridge to let it get to room temperature before baking.  If you forget, you can extend your baking time to compensate, but you'll have to make sure to keep an extra close eye on it.  See below for more make-ahead notes.

Broiling the nearly-finished strata to crisp up the top is technically optional, but I would recommend it.  It adds depth of flavour (especially if you've topped the strata off with extra cheese, which will melt and brown very nicely), and gives the whole dish a more finished sort of look.  Do be sure to keep an eyes on the strata as it sits though, as it will brown very quickly and can burn quite easily if you're not careful.  I like a little bit of char on the edges of my veggies so I tend to let it sit under the broiler a little bit longer than some.

Stratas can be put together ahead the day before and baked on the day-of, making them particularly nice when you're cooking for company or working on a busy weekday.  That being said, you do need to add an extra step to the process in order to keep the bread from becoming too soggy in the eggs. Simply scatter the cut bread pieces on a baking tray and bake in a low oven (about 250°F/120°C) for 20 minutes, or until the bread cubes are dry and a little browned. Once this is done, you can continue with the remaining steps as written in the recipe card below.

I mentioned this above in the baking notes, but it bears repeating here: try to let your strata get to room temperature before baking it.  A cold strata will cook more slowly and unevenly, requiring more attention in the oven.

Once baked and cooled, your strata can be refrigerated for a 2-3 days or frozen for 3+ months.  Refrigerated or frozen strata is best warmed up in a low-temperature oven.  A whole frozen cooked strata is actually a very handy meal to have ready to go in the freezer, and requires pretty minimal prep - about 1 hour in a 200°F (95°C) oven should do the trick, but you can up the temperature a bit if you're in a hurry.  You can microwave individual portions too, but make sure to do so carefully and in small time increments, or you might find that the eggy portion has a tendency to explode and make a disaster out of your microwave.

Here's a dirty secret about food photography and plating that you've probably suspected before - the green stuff on top of a dish is often there just because it looks right.  I try to use greenery to punch up my photos only if I think it also punches up the recipe, and that's certainly the case here.  I used fresh oregano to top this strata off for two reasons: 1) I love the way its subtle-but-distinctive flavour plays against the wine, onions, and goat cheese, and 2) it's completely taken over my yard and I need to eat more of it.  If you've got fresh oregano, absolutely go with it - but don't go crazy trying to find it either.  Flat-leaf parsley is nice too.  Scallion greens are an easy alternative, and very nice if you want to double-down on the onion.  I love cilantro, but I'd personally skip it on this recipe, as I think it competes with the other flavours.

There is one other element that I haven't used here but that would make an excellent addition - pine nuts!  Pine nuts are phenomenal with goat cheese and red wine, and including them gives this strata recipe an extra shot o' class for those fancy dinner parties.  If you do decide to add the pine nuts, I would personally recommend toasting them carefully in a dry frying pan for a minute or so before sprinkling them over the finished dish.  You could try adding them before the broiling step, but you'll want to be EXTRA-attentive, as pine nuts can burn VERY quickly.