Sweet Italian Sausage Strata

Ingredients

• 1 lb. sweet Italian sausage
• 1 medium sweet bell pepper, chopped
• 1 loaf Italian Bread, cut into large chunks
• 3 green onions, diced
• 2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
• 8 large eggs
• 1 cup half & half
• 1 cup milk, I used skim
• ½ tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp. pepper
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• ½ cup freshly grated parmesan

Instructions

• Cook the sausage in a skillet over medium high heat, breaking it up as it cooks. Cook for 5 minutes and add the sweet pepper and cook an additional 3 minutes and set aside.
• In a large bowl, add the bread, sausage mixture, green onions and cheddar cheese. Stir to combine.
• In a separate bowl, add the eggs, half & half, milk, salt, pepper and basil. Whisk to combine.
• Pour the egg mixture over the bread/sausage mixture. Stir to combine making sure the bread soaks up the egg mixture.
• Pour the mixture into a greased 9 x 13 baking dish. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour or as long as overnight.
• . If you refrigerated overnight, remove from fridge and let come to room temperature for 1 hour before baking.
• To bake, preheat oven to 325 degrees and bake for 50 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.