Greetings! This week I am in Vermont preparing for my big move across country. A big thanks to Amy from Eggs on Sunday for sharing a top-notch recipe here at Feelgood Eats while I am in the midst of clutter, paint, and a not-so-functional kitchen. With delicious recipes and an emphasis on local and seasonal foods, Amy’s blog is one of my favorites. If you haven’t already checked out Amy’s site you are in for a real treat - zip over to Eggs on Sunday and subscribe!

Hi there Feelgood Eats readers; Amy here from Eggs on Sunday. Sue asked if I’d be willing to write a guest post this week; being a fan of her blog and sharing her enthusiasm for local, seasonal foods, I was happy to do so!

Here in upstate New York, we’re slowly shifting into fall. There’s the occasional day of summer-ish weather, but all told, I’d say fall is peeking in at the corners wherever you look. At our farmer’s market last Saturday, hardy mums decorated the stands and lined the walkways, and bushels of apples were all around.

On these cool, crisp early autumn nights when the light is fading earlier, I’ve begun to crave food such as  this strata. Stratas are a wonderful one-dish meal: crusty bread, cheese, maybe some vegetables or maybe some meat (or both) are bound together in a light custard. It’s like a savory bread pudding (and how can that be bad?), ideal for any meal of the day, really.

Stratas are one of my go-to dishes for entertaining. When I have overnight guests I assemble the strata the night before, leave it in the refrigerator overnight to soak up the custard, and pop it into the oven the next morning. It’s wonderful for a light lunch or dinner, paired with a salad or another vegetable.

This strata is adapted from a recipe in Cooking with Shelburne Farms (which, by the way, is a wonderful cookbook if you haven’t yet seen it.) I used shallots from our garden, locally grown Liberty apples, New York super sharp cheddar cheese, and some delicious sausage from Kingbird Farm, which is about 20 miles away from Ithaca. Any of you who might read my blog regularly know that I border on being a Kingbird-Farm-sausage fanatic…it’s so unbelievably good! If you can find locally produced, grass-fed pork sausage, do try it.

Any kind of crusty bread is good in a strata; for this version, I used a seedy multigrain loaf, cut into cubes and toasted before being layered with the apples, sausage and cheddar. As a bonus, squares of this strata reheat well, so you can bake it early in the week and enjoy it a few times over. If it lasts that long, that is  – we have a tendency to keep nibbling at it, and it really hits the spot this time of year!

Sausage, Cheddar and Apple Strata (adapted from Cooking with Shelburne Farms)

(Serves 6-8)

• ¾ pound (5 to 6 cups) cubed crusty bread, such as sourdough or multigrain
• 4 medium shallots, sliced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 apples, peeled, cored and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
• 1 ½ cups grated sharp cheddar cheese (about 6 ounces)
• 1 pound Italian-style sausage, removed from casings if in links
• 4 eggs
• 1 quart (4 cups) half-and-half
• ½ teaspoon salt
• freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the bread cubes on a large rimmed baking sheet and toast in the oven for about 15 minutes, until golden brown around the edges.

Meanwhile, saute the sliced shallots in the olive oil in a skillet until translucent and starting to brown. Add the sausage to the skillet and cook until no longer pink, breaking up into pieces with a fork. Season with salt and pepper, and set aside.

Whisk together the eggs and half-and-half in a bowl with the salt and a few grinds of black pepper, and set aside.

Lightly grease a 9×13 (or equivalent) baking dish. In the bottom of the baking dish, spread half of the sausage/shallot mixture, half of the cubed apples, and half of the cheddar cheese. Top with the toasted bread cubes. On top of the bread cubes, layer the remaining sausage/shallot mixture and the remaining cubed apples. Pour the half-and-half mixture over the dish, pressing the bread cubes down gently so they all get moistened. Top with the remaining grated cheddar.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, until golden brown on top and set.

Like Amy’s Strata? Here are some more seasonal, local, and delicious recipes from Eggs on Sunday:

Warm Cabbage, Apple, & Onion Slaw

Peach Cinnamon Ice Cream with Maple Gingersnaps

Creamy Tomato Soup with Herb Toasts

Apple Cup Pies

Tagged as: breakfast, cookbooks, main course, vermont

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