Italian Apricot Pancetta Strata — The Church-Board Brunch Bake

Mrs. Patterson called Tuesday afternoon while I was at the kitchen table working on AP English homework and asked if I’d cater Sunday brunch for the Sapulpa First Methodist church-board meeting — eighteen people, the second-Sunday board breakfast they hold the third Sunday of every month, this month bumped up because the senior pastor was traveling. She wanted two stratas (something with substance, she said), a big fruit salad, two dozen biscuits, and a real coffee setup with cream and sugar. She offered two hundred and twenty-five dollars for the whole gig. I said yes before she finished saying the price — not because I was undervaluing the work, but because I’d already mentally booked the day before she’d gotten there. Mama was at the diner Saturday and Sunday. Cody was at TCC Tuesday and Thursday and at home Wednesday and Saturday. I had the kitchen and three days.

The strata I built around an apricot-pancetta combination I’d been thinking about since reading Marcella Hazan’s “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking” at the Sapulpa library back in November. Hazan has a passing reference to the way northern-Italian Sunday breakfast bakes use dried fruit alongside cured pork because the sweet-savory tension cuts through the richness of the eggs, and the comment had been sitting in my notes for two months waiting for an occasion. Eighteen Methodists on a Sunday morning was that occasion.

The strata: a loaf and a half of stale Italian bread cubed into one-inch dice (stale bread is critical for strata — fresh bread turns to mush in the egg soak; day-old or two-day-old bread holds its structure and absorbs the custard without disintegrating); a cup of dried apricots roughly chopped and soaked for thirty minutes in a quarter-cup of brandy from the bottle Mama keeps in the pantry for Christmas fruitcakes (the brandy plumps the apricots and they release their liquor into the egg mixture during the bake); eight ounces of pancetta diced and crisped in a skillet for the rendered fat; eight ounces of fontina cheese cut into small cubes (fontina melts more cleanly than cheddar and has a nutty depth that fontina holds against the apricots); a dozen large eggs whisked with two cups of half-and-half, a tablespoon of fresh thyme leaves, salt, pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg.

The strata gets layered into a buttered casserole — bread cubes, half the pancetta, half the apricots, half the fontina, repeat — and the egg mixture poured slowly over the layers until the bread is fully saturated. Press down gently with a spatula. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight. The overnight soak is the entire technical premise of strata; you cannot cheat the soak. The bread needs eight to twelve hours to fully absorb the custard so the bake is uniform.

I made two of these in two large rectangular casseroles Saturday afternoon. They went into the fridge at five PM. Sunday morning at six-thirty, I pulled them out, let them sit at room temperature for thirty minutes, and slid both into the oven at three-fifty. The casseroles get baked covered with foil for the first thirty minutes (which lets the egg gently set without browning the top), then uncovered for forty more minutes (which lets the top develop the deep golden crust strata is famous for). Total bake time: an hour and ten. The strata should be just set in the middle — a knife inserted comes out mostly clean — and puffed at the edges.

I delivered both casseroles plus four dozen buttermilk biscuits (yes I doubled the order at no extra charge, that’s the kind of business move that creates repeat customers) plus a giant glass bowl of cut fruit (winter fruit salad — pineapple, grapefruit segments, kiwi, pomegranate seeds, a touch of fresh mint, a splash of lime) to the church basement at exactly eight-thirty Sunday morning. Mrs. Patterson met me at the back door with the door propped open with a brick. She handed me a sealed envelope with two hundred and twenty-five dollars in cash inside plus a forty-dollar tip in a separate folded bill. The envelope went straight into the COLLEGE pocket of the green envelope under the silverware drawer when I got home.

Mrs. Patterson called me at noon to report. She said the board had gone silent for the first three minutes of the meeting because everybody was eating and nobody was willing to stop eating to talk. She said in her thirty years on the church board this was the first time she could remember a brunch literally interrupting the meeting. The senior pastor’s wife had asked for the strata recipe. Mrs. Patterson had told the wife the recipe was mine and not for distribution. I love Mrs. Patterson.

The overnight soak is non-negotiable. Day-old bread, foil for the first thirty, uncovered for forty more. Here’s the build.

Italian Apricot Pancetta Strata

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 55 min | Total Time: 1 hr 15 min (plus overnight soak) | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 1 loaf (about 14 oz) Italian or ciabatta bread, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 8 cups)
• 6 oz pancetta, diced
• 1/2 cup dried apricots, roughly chopped
• 1 small shallot, finely minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 6 large eggs
• 2 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Gruyere or fontina cheese, divided
• 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried)
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, for greasing

Instructions

1. Cook the pancetta. In a skillet over medium heat, cook diced pancetta until lightly crisped, about 5–7 minutes. Add shallot and garlic and cook 2 more minutes until softened. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Layer the bread. Butter a 9x13-inch baking dish. Spread half the bread cubes in an even layer. Scatter the pancetta mixture, chopped apricots, and 3/4 cup of the cheese over the bread. Top with remaining bread cubes.
3. Make the custard. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, cream, Dijon mustard, thyme, salt, and pepper until fully combined.
4. Soak overnight. Pour the custard evenly over the bread layers, pressing down gently so every cube is coated. Sprinkle remaining 3/4 cup cheese over the top. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.
5. Bake. Remove the strata from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Preheat oven to 350°F. Uncover and bake 50–60 minutes, until the top is golden and the custard is set in the center (a knife inserted in the middle should come out clean).
6. Rest and serve. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing. Serve warm directly from the baking dish.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 430 | Protein: 21g | Fat: 24g | Carbs: 34g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 680mg