This Spinach Ricotta Brunch Bake recipe is the perfect casserole to make for your weekend brunch. This is a dish that can be made ahead and will surely impress your guests.
Spinach Ricotta Brunch Bake
In our family, cheese pies are huge. We could eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner! But sometimes I just want to kick it up a notch and the best way to do that is to add bacon, of course. However this is closer to a spanakopita rather than a cheese pie. To this gorgeous pie I added more than just bacon; we’ve got cheddar cheese, red peppers, and a delicious spinach ricotta filling. This is definitely the perfect brunch to serve to your family and friends!
I love this recipe because it’s super versatile. You can add pretty much any fillings that you like! This brunch also is very basic to put together and will give you minimal mess to clean up afterwards. Just when you thought this recipe couldn’t get any better, it’s also perfect for making ahead of time so you can sit back and enjoy the morning.
Ingredients in Spinach Ricotta Brunch Bake
The ingredients in this recipe are super easy to substitute and switch up to suit what you have hanging out in your fridge, and what you like to eat for brunch. Keep scrolling for the full recipe and ingredient amounts.
For this recipe you’ll need:
- Puff pastry: I always use frozen store-bought puff pastry. It’s a very laborious type of pastry to make, and what you’ll find at the store is just as good as homemade. I will usually find some good quality sheets at my local Italian market!
- Eggs: I used large eggs for this recipe.
- Ricotta cheese: You can use cream cheese as a substitute if you prefer. It will be a little bit more dense and have a stronger flavor than ricotta.
- Hot sauce: This ingredient is optional, but I love the bit of zing I get in my brunch bake from some hot sauce.
- Spinach: I used fresh spinach. If you use frozen spinach, make sure to squeeze out all the excess water before using it.
- Bacon: You can use as much as you like. The more bacon the merrier, I always say!
- Cheddar cheese: When we have mild flavors like the ricotta, spinach, and egg in there, I like to use a nice and sharp cheddar to add lots of flavor to the dish.
- Red bell pepper: You can really use any type that you have handy, I just love a good pop of color in my brunch bake.
What Other Fillings Can I Use?
The options are endless for this spinach ricotta bake! Give these a try:
Meats:
- Cooked & crumbled sausage
- Chopped ham
- Roasted chicken, chopped
- Cooked & chopped pancetta
Veggies:
- Onion
- Mushrooms
- Broccoli
- Tomatoes
Cheeses
- Parmesan
- Gouda
- Pecorino
- White cheddar
How to Make Spinach Ricotta Brunch Bake
- Prepare the oven and baking pan: Preheat your oven to 400F and spray your baking pan with cooking spray.
- Prepare the puff pastry: Carefully unfold the thawed puff pastry sheets. Roll one of them out to an 11″ square, then roll the other to a 12″ square. Use the 12″ sheet to line the bottom of your pan.
- Make the filling: Lightly beat the eggs and reserve 1 tbsp. Mix the rest of the eggs in with the ricotta, hot sauce, and spinach. Layer half of the ricotta mixture on the puff pastry in the pan, then half of each the bacon, cheese, and peppers. Repeat with the remaining ingredients.
- Bake: Cover everything with the remaining puff pastry sheet and fold the edges in to secure the filling. Brush the pastry with your reserved tbsp of egg, and bake for about 1 hour or until the pastry is golden brown.
- Serve: Let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then run a butter knife around the edges to loosen them. Cut into slices and serve.
Thaw your puff pastry sheets in the fridge. The key to make sure the puff up nicely is to keep them nice and cold. Use them straight out of the fridge.
What Type of Pan Can I Use?
I used a 9″ springform pan for this recipe. If you don’t have one, I would highly suggest making the investment! They are fantastic for recipes like this. Slicing and serving perfect pieces will seriously not get any easier.
You can also use:
How to Make Spinach Ricotta Brunch Bake Ahead of Time
You can fully prepare this spinach ricotta bake and store it in your fridge until you’re ready to serve. You have a few options here:
- Bake it up to 4 days ahead of time and store in the fridge, covered with plastic wrap, until you’re ready to serve. You can either serve it cold or warm it up in a 250F oven for about 20-30 minutes.
- Prepare it up to 4 days ahead of time, then wrap the pan well with plastic wrap. Remove the wrap and cook it as but don’t bake until about 1.5 hours until you’re ready to serve.
- If you plan on making this more than 4 days ahead of time, you can store it in the freezer. Transfer it to the fridge 2 days before you need it so that it can slowly thaw out. Keep in mind that when veggies and egg freeze and thaw, they create a lot of extra moisture.
You can also use this as a guide to store any leftovers you may have. If you choose to freeze them, I find it a lot easier to store the leftovers in individual slices!
Did You Love This Brunch Recipe? Try These!
- Sausage Potato Breakfast Casserole
- Shakshuka Recipe
- Breakfast Pizza
- Cinnabons Cinnamon Rolls
- Crescent Bacon Breakfast Ring
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Spinach Ricotta Brunch Bake
Ingredients
- 2 sheets puff pastry thawed
- 6 eggs beaten
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- dash hot sauce optional
- 1 cup spinach chopped
- 6 slices bacon cooked, chopped
- 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese shredded
- 1 medium red bell pepper chopped
Instructions
- Prepare the oven and baking pan: Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray a 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray.
- Prepare the puff pastry: Carefully unfold the thawed puff pastry sheets. Roll one of them out to an 11″ square, then roll the other to a 12″ square. Use the 12″ sheet to line the bottom of your pan.
- Make the filling: Lightly beat the eggs and reserve 1 tbsp. Mix the rest of the eggs in with the ricotta, hot sauce, and spinach. Layer half of the ricotta mixture on the puff pastry in the pan, then half of each the bacon, cheese, and peppers. Repeat with the remaining ingredients.
- Bake: Cover everything with the remaining puff pastry sheet and fold the edges in to secure the filling. Brush the pastry with your reserved tbsp of egg, and bake for about 1 hour or until the pastry is golden brown.
- Serve: Let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then run a butter knife around the edges to loosen them. Cut into slices and serve.
Wonderful recipe!! Will be making again this weekend. Thank you.
Could I add some Roma Tomato, I have to use some of the Tomato from my garden.
Yes, you can definitely use those up.
Looks beautiful and tasty! Going to try to make it this weekend. Are salt and pepper needed to add into the ricotta-egg filling?
Thanks<
Sophia
I didn’t add any but feel free to add some to your taste. 🙂
Got rave reviews on this dish however the cooking time is not clear – instructions state one hour and twenty minutes which seemed awfully long to me and gladly I checked at about 50 minutes and the dish was done. While reviewing the instructions I noticed on the “jump to recipe” it says to cook for 1 hour.
Thanks for noticing Lisa, we will correct the recipe to make sure they are both correct!
This was a big hit for this years Christmas Brunch. It came out beautifully layered, nice and crispy crust. I was a little concerned it would leak all over, putting a rectangle sheet of puff pastry in a round pan, but I tucked it in and there was no leakage or soggy bottom. I added onions and garlic which beautifully complimented the rest of the flavors.
Hello!
I am looking forward to making this for Christmas Eve morning but unfortunately my grocery store was out of puff pastry so I got two packages of crescent rolls. Do you think this will work? Anything I should do differently? Thank you!!
I mean it won’t be as flaky, but it should be fine.
Looking forward to making this for Christmas brunch – just one question. I was always told that using fresh spinach would produce too much liquid? Just checking! Thank you!
Well you’re only using a cup, but if you want to be sure just saute it first for a bit, then add it.
Delicious and beautiful!
Could you use pie crust instead of puff pastry?
Of course! Make it your own 🙂
Terrific for a brunch!
Great recipe. Added pancetta and mushrooms.instead of bacon. Reduced temp to 365 for 1hr~10min and came out perfect. Did cover mine after 45 mins with piece of foil to keep that beautiful golden brown crust
Could you make individual sized “pies” in a muffin tin and freeze them. They sound Fabulous to me but no one else will eat them.
You can give that a try!