I am a fan of bread pudding. If it is on the menu, you can bet that I’ll be having pudding for dessert. My favorite is Baked French Toast for breakfast. The sweet, spongy, custard-like texture just appeals to my tastebuds. I bought two loaves of French Bread from Costco last week. I found another pudding recipe in my favorite Tartine cookbook, and it is savory, not sweet! I guessed savory bread pudding might get more approvals from the girls than dessert pudding. The motto these days is no sugar, no dessert. I’ll be good for a week 😅.

I modified the recipe quite a bit, changing ingredients and proportions to make two pans of bread pudding. One to keep and one to be delivered to Moss. Hillary and Ashley gave thumbs up, so this recipe is a keeper👍.

Note: The recipe below fills only one 9×13″ pan. Double the recipes for two pans.

Ingredients

• 6 oz day old French bread, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 8 oz hot Italian sausage
• 8 oz assorted fresh mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 leek, white part only
• 3/4 cup yellow onion, chopped
• 6 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3/8 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme
• 1/2 cup grated cheddar

Directions

1. Arrange cubed French bread in a greased 9×13 baking dish.
2. Brown sausage in a large skillet, breaking it up as it cooks using two spatula.
3. Drain and set aside.
4. Add olive oil to the drippings from the sausage. Saute the mushrooms until softened. Set aside.
5. Brown chopped onions and leeks in the sausage dripping, about 3 – 5 minutes. Remove and set aside.
6. In a large mixing bowl, whisk eggs and salt until well combined.
7. Add the milk, cream, pepper, and nutmeg. Whisk again until well combined.
8. Stir in the sausage, mushroom, onions, leek, and cheese.
9. Pour over the French bread. It should just barely cover the highest tip of the bread cubes.
10. Cover with aluminium foil and and refrigerate overnight.
11. The next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
12. Remove the foil cover and bake the bread pudding for just over an hour or until the custard is fully set. A wooden stick should come out clean from the middle of the custard.
13. Garnish with fresh parsley.
14. Serve hot.

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