Name: One-Pan Savory Bread Pudding with Turkey Sausage and Kale
Total time: 2 h
Ingredients: 1 (18- to 20-inch) baguette , torn or cut into 1-inch pieces (10 cups); 1 pound kale , stemmed and chopped; 4 shallots , sliced thin; 2 garlic cloves , minced; 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil; 3 cups heavy cream; 2 cups whole milk; 8 large egg yolks; 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard; 1 pound turkey sausage , casings removed; ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese; 2 tablespoons minced fresh chives

Why This Recipe Works

Our first attempts at this dish left us with unappealing pools of grease, so we had to take a closer look at our ingredients. Cutting back on cheese and swapping in leaner (but still flavorful) turkey sausage for pork were easy ways to lighten this casserole. Microwaving the kale with some aromatics and oil jump-started its cooking and eliminated excess water in our finished dish. Since soggy bread is the downfall of any bread pudding, we toasted torn baguette slices to enrich their flavor and give the bread some custard-withstanding crispness. We stirred the toasted bread into our simple custard, prepared with 3 parts cream to 2 parts milk, which made it rich but not over the top. To prevent curdling, we stabilized the custard by using just yolks rather than the traditional whole eggs. Once the bread had absorbed some of the custard and the kale was mixed in, we assembled the bread pudding, layering the custard-bread mixture with sausage and topping it off with Parmesan. From there, all we had to do was bake it, covered at first to set the filling, then uncovered for the last 20 minutes to generate some appealing browning.

Instructions

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Arrange bread in even layer in 13 by 9-inch baking dish. Bake, stirring occasionally, until bread is crisp and browned, about 12 minutes; let cool for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees.

Meanwhile, combine kale, shallots, garlic, and oil in bowl and microwave, stirring occasionally, until kale is wilted, about 5 minutes. Wrap kale mixture in clean dish towel and wring tightly to squeeze out as much liquid as possible.

Whisk cream, milk, egg yolks, and mustard together in large bowl. Stir in toasted bread and drained kale mixture until well combined.

Spray now-empty baking dish with vegetable oil spray. Pour half of bread mixture into prepared dish. Crumble half of sausage into ½-inch pieces over top. Top with remaining bread mixture and remaining sausage. Sprinkle with Parmesan.

Cover tightly with greased aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and continue to bake until custard is just set and top is browned, about 20 minutes.

Remove dish from oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with chives before serving.