Kale, chorizo and bean strata

 Kale, chorizo and red bean brunch casserole

Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens, Dec. 2014

Ingredients

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

1½ links of chorizo sausage, preferably uncooked, but cooked if that’s all you can find

1 large onion, sliced into ¼-inch rounds

1 15-ounce can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

4 cups ½-inch bread cubes

8 cups kale, washed, stripped from stems and torn into 3-inch pieces

½ cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes

12 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into 1-inch cubes

12 eggs

2/3 cup cream

2/3 cup olive oil

¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese

¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg

Method

Butter a 3-quart baking dish.

Cook chorizo in a large skillet. Remove from pan and set aside. If using cured chorizo, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan at this point to get enough oil. Add onion slices, sprinkle with kosher salt and cook until soft. Add beans and sprinkle with more kosher salt. Transfer bean and onion mixture to prepared baking dish.

Add another tablespoon of olive oil to the skillet. Add kale and cook until wilted. Top bean/onion mixture with bread cubes, tomatoes and chorizo. Top with kale and then cheese cubes. Beat eggs. Blend in cream and oil. Stir in cheese and nutmeg. Pour over layers in casserole dish. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Rating: Nice flavors, a hearty winter dish and best yet, it let me use up the last of the season's kale, freeing up a container to store more Christmas cookies. It's not my very favorite strata, which is a goat cheese artichoke and ham strata from Bon Appetit, my go-to for company brunch situations (and it's fine enough meatless, if you must).  But it's a perfectly tasty way to use up the chorizo I had left from another recipe. Note: If you don't use raw chorizo, you might want to substitute some sun-dried tomato oil for some of the olive oil to give it more flavor that the chorizo drippings provide.