Strata: A Savory Custard

This vegetable custard calls for the same ingredients as the individual timbales that I learned to make as a youngster from my aunt Marian in Vermont and have relished ever since. It’s a good way to use up yesterday’s baguette and a leftover vegetable, to say nothing of that fallback ingredient, a piece of ham. Here I put everything into a 1 1/2 cup ceramic baking dish that has a 4 1/2-inch diameter and it fills the dish, coming out of the oven puffy and lightly tanned. It’s easier than having to unmold the individual timbales, and, of course, I eat it right from the dish as soon as it has cooled long enough not to burn my tongue.