Spinach Feta Strata

New Year's Eve. End of the decade. I spent it at the brewery taproom — smaller event this year, just staff and regulars. Marcus and I poured beers until midnight. Babcia's Kitchen and Forest Floor and Kowalski Lager and Helen's Wheat and all the beers I've made in the three years since I stopped just loading kegs and started creating. At midnight I stepped outside, same as last year. The lake. The cold. The fireworks. But this time I wasn't alone — Mike had come to the taproom (Amy was visiting her family), and we stood on the sidewalk in the freezing air and clinked bottles. "Happy New Year, pierogi guy," he said. "Happy New Year, free-food beneficiary," I said. We laughed. The city exploded with noise. 2019 in review: the monthly column, the magazine article, the video, thirty-two thousand followers, the barrel-aged Forest Floor, telling Mrs. Wojcik and then Mom and Dad about Helen's, the wooden pierogi press, the Wigilia that felt effortless. A year of building. Of saying out loud what I'd been thinking in silence. 2020 goals: finish the four-part Polish food series. Keep developing the Helen's business plan. Save money aggressively. Maybe — maybe — start looking at storefronts seriously. Not to sign a lease. Just to know what's out there. To narrow the dream from abstract to concrete. Also: find someone to share the pierogi with. Not urgently. Not desperately. But the apartment is quiet and the balcony seats two and one chair is always empty. Someday. Made scrambled eggs at 1 AM. Tradition. The simplest meal for the turning of the page. Butter, salt, pepper. The eggs of a man who is ready for whatever comes next. I don't know what's coming next. Nobody does. That's what makes it interesting. (Later, much later, I will learn that what was coming next was a global pandemic. But on this night, standing in the cold outside a Milwaukee brewery with a beer in my hand and hope in my chest, I didn't know that. And the not-knowing was the last gift of the 2010s.)

Every year it’s scrambled eggs at 1 AM — butter, salt, pepper, nothing more, the simplest possible way to say the page has turned. But standing outside that taproom in the Milwaukee cold with Mike, clinking bottles over a city exploding with noise, I felt something shift: 2019 had been a year of building, and maybe the eggs deserved to grow up a little too. The Spinach Feta Strata I’ve written out below is where the tradition goes when it’s ready to be more than just survival food — still eggs, still honest, still made in the quiet hours, but with a little more intention behind it. It’s the kind of thing you assemble the night before, which felt exactly right for a year I spent learning to plan ahead without knowing what was coming.

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

Ingredients

1 loaf (about 12 oz) day-old crusty bread, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 8 cups)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for greasing
1 small yellow onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
10 oz fresh baby spinach (or 10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry)
8 large eggs
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
6 oz crumbled feta cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella, divided
2 tablespoons fresh dill or flat-leaf parsley, chopped (optional, for finishing)

Instructions

Prepare the baking dish. Butter a 9x13-inch baking dish generously. Spread the bread cubes in an even layer across the bottom and set aside.
Cook the vegetables. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and lightly golden, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more. Add the spinach in batches, tossing until fully wilted (about 3 minutes for fresh; just heat through for frozen). Season lightly with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
Make the custard. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, heavy cream, kosher salt, black pepper, nutmeg, and red pepper flakes until fully combined and slightly frothy.
Assemble the strata. Scatter the spinach mixture evenly over the bread cubes. Sprinkle the crumbled feta and 3/4 cup of the mozzarella over the top. Pour the egg custard slowly and evenly over everything, pressing the bread gently with a spatula to help it absorb the liquid.
Rest overnight (or at least 1 hour). Cover the dish tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or overnight. This allows the bread to fully soak up the custard — don’t skip this step.
Bake. Remove the strata from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Scatter the remaining 1/4 cup mozzarella over the top. Bake uncovered for 50—60 minutes, until the custard is set in the center (a knife inserted should come out clean) and the top is golden brown. If the top browns too quickly, tent loosely with foil.
Rest and serve. Let the strata rest for 10 minutes before cutting. Scatter fresh dill or parsley over the top if using. Serve warm, cut into squares.

Nutrition (per serving)

Spinach Feta Strata — The Eggs That Mark Every Turning Page