I made this cheesy, sausagey, spinachy, mushroomy, Savory Bread Pudding with leftover brat buns. So delicious, satisyting, and worthy of your overnight guests.
Savory Bread Pudding
Course: Breakfast, Brunch12
servings40
minutes25
minutes1
hour5
minutesThis savory bread pudding can be prepared one day and baked the next.
Ingredients
1 Tbs olive oil
10 oz. baby spinach
1 lb. Italian pork sausage
2 Tbs butter, plus more for baking dish
1 med-large onion, chopped
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp table salt, divided
1 Tbs herbes de Provence
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
1/4 cup white wine
2.5 cups grated Colby-jack, divided
8 cups cubed leftover or stale bread (wholegrain works)
6 large eggs
2 cups milk
1 cup heavy cream
Directions
- Add the oil to your largest soup pot, preheated over a medium flame. Add the spinach. Cook, stirring constantly, until it’s wilted but has’t given off any liquid, 1 minute. Off heat, cover and allow to wilt further and cool. Chop coarsely and set aside.
- In a 2-inch-deep, 10-inch-diameter (or larger) skillet over medium-high heat, sauté the sausage, breaking it up as you go, until no pink remains, about 4-5 minutes. Tilt the pan, let the juice run to the side; scoop it out with a soup spoon and discard it. Transfer the sausage to your largest mixing bowl.
- Return the cast-iron pan to medium heat, and melt the butter in it. Add the onion and mushrooms and cook until they soften, about 5 minutes.
- Add the garlic, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, herbes de Provence, (and cayenne), and cook until fragrant, another 1-2 minutes.
- Raise the heat to high, add the wine, deglaze if necessary, and cook until all liquid is almost completely evaporated, 2½ minutes.
- Transfer the pan’s contents to the bowl with the sausage, add the spinach, toss, and allow to cool to something close to lukewarm.
- Add 2 cups of the cheese and all of the bread. (If your mixing bowl isn’t large enough to manage this, transfer half of the meat mixture to the pot you used for the spinach, then mix half of the bread into the mixing bowl mixture and the other half into the spinach pot mixture.)
- Spread the mixture (all of it) into a buttered 9″ x 13″ baking pan; set aside.
- Whisk the eggs and yolks in the same (unwashed) bowl you used for the meat mixture. Add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, milk, and cream, and whisk until blended.
- Pour the egg mixture over the bread mixture. Cover tightly with foil and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 325°F.
- Top the pudding with the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese. Place the foil back on and bake the pudding until it bubbles at the edges and is nicely browned, 65 minutes, removing the foil after 40 minutes.
- Let the pudding cool for 15 minutes or so, and serve warm.
- Refrigerate any leftover pudding. Reheat individual servings in the microwave; or the whole pan, covered with foil, in a 250°F oven.
Notes
- Substitutions: another veg for the spinach (or omit it), 8 oz. bacon for the pork, another herb (like thyme) for the herbes de Provence, chicken or vegetable stock for the white wine, 4 eggs + 2 yolks for the 6 eggs, a mixture of Gruyère and Parmesan for the Colby-jack, cheddar for the Colby-jack
This savory bread pudding is extremely good. It’s so good that, rather than waiting for those times when I happen to have stale bread around, I might buy fresh bread and purposely leave it out so that it goes stale, just so I could make bread pudding!
Social Learning
Whip this up before your overnight guests arrive, and serve them in the morning, and they’ll be, like what? It also keeps magnificently and microwaves perfectly. These things just add to this savory bread pudding’s many plusses.
Cooking Tips
You could make this dish with any kind of bread or bun. Some people say the more Wonder-Bready the better. I wouldn’t know. I had to look up Wonder Bread on the internet to see if it still existed. (It does.) I’ve made this bread pudding with leftover brioche buns, oniony-garlicky buns, poppy seed buns, and I never bothered to remove the (soft) crust on any of them. All good.
I use a glass baking dish for this. I like that I can see through the sides, to see how much bubbling I’ve got. Anyway, the important thing is, if you use a pan made of something else, you may have to adjust the baking time.
Definitions
I categorized this as a breakfast or brunch item, although I would eat it – and have eaten it – any time of day or night: lunch, dinner … it’s a bit filling for a snack, but I’ve eaten it as a snack regardless.
Now of course, the question you’re asking is, how is this a bread pudding, and not a casserole or strata? Well, it’s not layered. So, strata is right out, even though the ingredients are the same. I would argue that bread pudding is a type of casserole, so either of those terms seems correct … although the former is usually sweet, and the latter is usually for dinner … which makes both terms seem at least a little incorrect. In the end, “bread pudding” seems fancier than “casserole,” and this is indeed a rather fancy casserole, with wine and herbes de Provence and whatnot. And I even used a Provence blend that contains lavender. So don’t you dare call this a casserole.
The Backstory
This is another frugality recipe. This one is “what to do with lots of leftover bread.” Leftover bread isn’t something I have around a lot, for two reasons: first, I love bread. Second, I love toast. Bread rarely has a chance to stale at my house.
I also love throwing parties, sort of. And at one of my recent ones, I served brats. No, not the rude neighborhood children who won’t stay off my lawn, skewered and slow roasted. Alas, no. I served those larger-than-hot-dog sausages that you eat on buns. Brats with an “ah.” Anyway, the thing is, I wound up with so many packages of leftover buns that there was no chance I could eat or toast them all. Et voila, this savory bread pudding was conceived.
Savory Bread Pudding
Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! unless otherwise credited. Refernces: Food and Wine, King Arthur Baking, NY Times. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. Thank you, Kesor. Make It Like a Man! is ranked by Feedspot as #14 in the Top 30 Men’s Cooking Blogs.
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Brats!!!! Hahahahahahaha! This is such a great idea, and it’s just smart being frugal. Plus you get to create new dishes! I much prefer savory, so this is a perfect dish for me.
Thanks, Mimi! 🙂
I am definitely bookmarking this. During college football season we are having weekend houseguests often, and this will be the perfect breakfast offering.
Thank you so much!
It’s very tasty, and quite filling! I think it’d be perfect for that!
Oh yum. This looks so good.
Thank you!
I like a good savoury bread pudding. This looks so satisfying and tasty.
Thanks, Angie!
I don’t care for bread pudding but when I saw this savory recipe I know I would love this. It looks amazing.
Why, thanks, Lori!
Excellent. I like my food cheesy, sausagey, spinachy, and mushroomy 😊
Me too! Thanks, Gary!
Looks delicious. I’d bring coffee for a warm slice. 🙂
Thanks, Judee!
de quoi ce régaler avec ce superbe pudding, je ne connais pas cette version salée!
a bientôt!
amicalement
Thank you, Josette!
This type of bread pudding is one of my favourites to serve overnight guests. Sometimes I sneak downstairs at the crack of dawn to take it out of the fridge to warm to room temperature so it doesn’t need as much time in the oven. This type of overnight pudding is also amazing with rice dishes like Paella (although the seafood may be overdone by the end so I limit it to meat Paella).
Great tips! Thanks!