Italian Bread Pudding

Ingredients

• 6 servings basil fresh
• 1 cup cheddar cheese grated
• 8 slices bacon fully cooked chopped
• 1.5 teaspoons dijon mustard 
• 1 teaspoon basil dried
• 5 large eggs 
• 0.1 tsp ground pepper red
• 1 cup milk 
• 9.5 oz monterrey jack cheese frozen chopped
• 1.3 cups plum tomatoes seeded chopped
• 0.8 teaspoon salt 

Equipment

• oven
• whisk
• baking pan

Directions

1. Whisk together first 6 ingredients until blended.
2. Layer half of Texas toast in a lightly greased 11- x 7-inch baking dish; sprinkle with half each of tomatoes, bacon, and cheese. Repeat layers once.
3. Pour egg mixture over toast and cheese. Cover and chill 4 to 24 hours.
4. Preheat oven to 32
5. Bake casserole 50 to 55 minutes or until center is set.
6. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.
7. Garnish, if desired.
8. *1 1/4 cups egg substitute may be substituted.
9. Note: For testing purposes only, we used Pepperidge Farm Mozzarella and Monterey Jack Texas Toast.
10. Texas Toast Bread Pudding: Omit dried basil, tomatoes, and bacon. Proceed with recipe as directed.
11. Sausage
12. Roll Casserole: Omit dried basil, tomatoes, and bacon. Increase cheese to 1 1/2 cups. Substitute 1 (18-oz.) package frozen sausage wrap rolls for Texas toast. Break apart sausage rolls; cut each roll crosswise into thirds, cutting across sausage. Proceed with recipe as directed.
13. Note: For testing purposes only, we used Sister Schubert's Sausage Wrap
14. Rolls.