This make-ahead strata takes all of the elements of a deluxe pizza, and combines them into a make-ahead casserole! A fun brunch offering.
As I mentioned in my Ham, Swiss, and Kale Strata, sometimes I end up going on a wild strata kick, making a new one each week for my husband’s breakfasts for the week.
They’re easy to make, hearty, and I love that they’re make ahead - I do most of the work the night before, then just pop it in the oven in the morning.
It’s a great
Recently, I made a Breakfast Bagel Strata, which was a ton of fun.
Changing up the bread used in it - bagels, instead of baguettes - got me thinking. How weird could I get with it?
One thing led to another, and here we are with a Pizza inspired strata!
Developing this Strata Recipe
Originally, I considered using either ready-bake garlic bread, or basically making garlic bread for this.
Ready-made isn’t always available, and what IS available varies wildly from place to place... so it wasn’t a reliable ingredient.
Making garlic bread would be more doable, but in the end, I decided it would just be better to flavour up the custard, and have that permeate the bread, naturally.
From there, it was deciding on “pizza toppings”, and how I was going to involve the marinara sauce.
We decided to basically do a traditional “deluxe pizza” themed strata. I mean, not much sense in doing our base pizza strata recipe themed around a more “gourmet” pizza that not really pizza-ish, you know?
A BBQ Chicken Pizza strata would just be a BBQ chicken strata! (Which, really, would be amazing).
So: Pepperoni, sausage, green peppers, mushrooms, onions, and cheese.
My husband likes a little pizza sauce, but not a ton - he hates tomatoes in general.
So, I included just enough for it to be “pizza”, without being really in-your face. It worked really well, at the amount we call for!
Pizza Strata Variations
With that all said, this recipe IS highly adaptable - with minor considerations. More on that in a bit.
You can mess with this recipe all kinds of ways, to come up with the “pizza” strata you like best.
Some thoughts:
Sauces
We used marinara, but you can use any sauce you like on your pizza. Try this with pesto, BBQ sauce, garlic sauce - whatever!
Meats
Double the pepperoni, skip the sausage!
Swap all or part of the pepperoni and/or sausage for ham, or for vegetarian meat substitutes.
Add some ground beef, salami, chorizo, and/or some back bacon (“Canadian Bacon”, for the Americans!)
Shred up a rotisserie chicken, and use that meat - With BBQ Sauce! - for that aforementioned BBQ chicken (pizza?) Strata!
Anchovies? Why not!
Vegetables
We used peppers, mushrooms, and onions... but really, use anything you’d like on pizza.
Grilled zuchinnis, sliced fresh - or pickled - jalapenos. Chopped canned artichokes are great!
Roasted red peppers, spinach, caramelized onions... really, whatever you like.
Cheese
Really, use any cheese you like. I like to keep a bulk of it as mozzarella, as that’s the most “pizza” flavour to me, but you can swap all or part of it for anything else.
Provolone, Asiago... toss a bit of feta or goat cheese in there. Maybe some ricotta. It’s all very free-form, IMHO.
Other Stuff
Pineapple, sun dried tomatoes, olives (Fruits, not vegetables!) are all great additions.
Crushed chilies, fresh basil, maybe some capers. Have fun with it!
The Big Caveats
Three main considerations to keep in mind when substituting ingredients in this recipe:
1. All meats should be cooked before adding them.
2. Try to keep the overall volume of toppings somewhat in-line with what I’ve called for. If you add a LOT more, your strata may not “stick” together.
3. MOISTURE - That’s the big one.
You want to get as much moisture out of any ingredients that you can, as excessive moisture will leach out during cooking, and can prevent the custard from setting well/evenly. You could end up with soggy strata.
Canned ingredients should be well-drained and blotted with paper towel before adding them; Vegetables should be cooked before adding them, to sweat the water out.
Reheating Your Strata
If you’re not serving this to a crowd of 8-10 people the morning you make it, you will definitely end up with leftovers.
While you CAN heat it up in the microwave, I definitely recommend heating it up in an air fryer, if that’s an option.
Microwaving it will give you a soft result, but an air fryer crisps up the casserole leftovers beautifully - it’s like eating it fresh from the oven!
The Instant Vortex 4-in-1 Air Fryer, 6 Quart by Instant Pot is the Air Fryer we purchased, and we love it.
If I had my time back, I may have ordered this one - a size bigger - but we had no idea how much we'd use it, so we weren't really willing to pay more or sacrifice more counter space for it!
I’m sure all air fryers are a little different, but for reference: he reheats his strata for 4-5 minutes at 400F.
How to Make Pizza Bread Pudding
The Night Before
Cut up your baguette into bite-sized pieces, set aside.
Chop your green peppers and slice the mushrooms. I like the mushroom slices to be fairly thin.
Chop your pepperoni to whatever size you'd like. We used Turkey pepperoni.
In a large mixing bowl combine chopped pepperoni, green peppers, and mushrooms. Set aside.
Remove skin from the Italian sausage. In a large frying pan, cook the Italian sausage until cooked through, breaking it up into bits as it cooks.
Once the sausage is starting to brown and is almost cooked through, add onions and garlic. Continue cooking for 1 minute.
Add Pepperoni and veggie mix to the pan. Continue cooking until mushrooms and peppers have softened a bit. This will make your house immediately and WILDLY smell like pizza, LOL.
Remove from heat.
Add black olives to the toppings mixture, set aside.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, garlic, oregano, basil, salt, and pepper, and milk, until well combined.
Using cooking spray or butter, grease a 9’x 13″ baking/cake pan. Arrange half of the baguette pieces evenly in the pan.
Use a spoon or pastry bag to drizzle half the marinara over the bread. Scatter half of the toppings mixture over it, then half of the cheeses.
Repeat layering one more time, ending with cheese on top.
Pour egg mixture evenly over everything, wrap with plastic wrap, and chill for 4 hours, or overnight.
The Morning Of
About an hour and a half before serving:
Remove strata from the fridge, preheat oven to 350F. I like to let the strata sit on the counter for 20 minutes or so, to take the chill off it.
Remove plastic wrap from strata, cover with foil, and bake for 40 minutes.
Remove foil, bake for another 10-15 minutes. Strata is ready when it is cooked through and golden brown on top.
Serve hot!
More Breakfast and Brunch Recipes
Looking for more ideas to jazz up your breakfast experience! Here are a few more recipes for you:
Ambrosia Belgian Waffles
Apple Cinnamon Buns
Baking Powder Biscuits
Biscuits and Gravy - MY Way!
Blueberry Banana Bread
Breakfast Pizza
Chai Cinnamon Rolls
Easy Banana Bread
Easy Cheese Souffle
Eggless Banana Bread
Fig, Honey, and Goat Cheese Strudel
Ham & Swiss Breakfast Pizza
How to Make Peameal and Back Bacon
Maple Walnut Spiced Pumpkin Buns
Peanut Butter Banana Bread
Peanut Butter & Jelly Rolls
Rosemary Peach Balsamic Scones
Smoked Gouda and Chive Scones
Strawberry Orange Rolls
The BEST Hash Browns Recipe
Looking for even quicker options? Check out my Muffin Recipes, too! There are also some fantastic Bagel Recipes on this blog...
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Deluxe Pizza Strata
Equipment
- 9 x 13 Baking Dish
Ingredients
- ½ lb Italian Sausage sausage
- 1 tablespoon Olive oil
- ½ Small Onion Chopped
- 4 Garlic cloves pressed or minced
- ½ lb Pepperoni Chopped
- 1 Green bell pepper Chopped
- ½ lb Baby Bella / Crimini Mushrooms Sliced
- ⅓ Cup Sliced Black Olives
- 9 Large Eggs
- 1 teaspoon Garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon Dried Basil
- 1 teaspoon Dried Oregano
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ½ teaspoon Pepper
- 2 ½ cups Milk
- Cooking spray or butter
- 1 Baguette, cut into 1″ cubes
- 2 cups Grated Mozzarella cheese
- ½ cup Grated Parmesan cheese
- ½ cup Marinara sauce
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl combine chopped pepperoni, green peppers, and mushrooms. Set aside.
- Remove skin from the Italian sausage. In a large frying pan, cook the Italian sausage until cooked through, breaking it up into bits as it cooks
- Once the sausage is starting to brown and is almost cooked through, add onions and garlic. Continue cooking for 1 minute.
- Add Pepperoni and veggie mix to the pan. Continue cooking until mushrooms and peppers have softened a bit. Remove from heat.
- Add black olives to the toppings mixture, set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, garlic, oregano, basil, salt, and pepper, and milk, until well combined.
- Using cooking spray or butter, grease a 9’x 13″ baking/cake pan. Arrange half of the baguette pieces evenly in the pan.
- Use a spoon or pastry bag to drizzle half the marinara over the bread. Scatter half of the toppings mixture over it, then half of the cheeses.
- Repeat layering one more time, ending with cheese on top.
- Pour egg mixture evenly over everything, wrap with plastic wrap, and chill for 4 hours, or overnight.
- About an hour and a half before serving:
- Remove strata from fridge, preheat oven to 350F. I like to let the strata sit on the counter for 20 minutes or so, to take the chill off it.
- Remove plastic wrap from strata, cover with foil, and bake for 40 minutes.
- Remove foil, bake for another 10-15 minutes. Strata is ready when it is cooked through and golden brown on top.
- Serve hot!
Nutrition
This make-ahead strata takes all of the elements of a deluxe pizza, and combines them into a make-ahead casserole! A fun brunch offering.
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