Savory Tomato Bread Pudding

I made Sara's Savory Tomato Bread Pudding from Top Chef for the wahine last night. She has $50 to prepare an appetizer for 60 of "Miami's Beautiful." I spent 40 to feed 20 - but bread and eggs are expensive here! The link shows her recipe. It says it's for ten, so I doubled it ... and ended up with 120 muffins before I caved in & through the rest of the batter in four pie tins and baked it en masse. The muffins were great - a definite keeper!

A pic of her food is above; I'll post mine someday.

1/2 large onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, sliced
1 quart heavy whipping cream
3/4 quart whole milk
9 oz tomato paste
10 whole eggs
3 loaves baguette, shredded in the cuisinart
1 bunch basil, chopped
8oz cream cheese

• Saute the onion and garlic until translucent. Remove from heat, add cream, and season well.
• Blend milk and tomato paste in a cuisinart. Season.
• Mix the two sauces. Add bread and eggs. Let sit 45"
• Put mix in mini-muffin tins. Add a dollop of basil cream on top. Bake in 375 oven for 15". Let cool.

So easy! They were nice and moist, with a nice blend of pepper and tomato. Perfect for a hot summer's day. It was popular - the wahine devoured the 60 I brought to the race. I could've brought the whole batch! Instead I gave some to my neighbors, and I'll bring a couple dozen to work. And I still have a batch left in my refrigerator. Thanks Sara!

Differences:

• I diced my onion, while Sara's was brunoise. Same thing in my book
• She used a red onion. I think I'll do the same next time.
• She added thyme to the cream cheese, and pushed it through a tamis. I just used basil, and kept the herbs in.
• She drizzled the basil cream on top after it was done, and drizzled it all with balsamic vinegar. My way is easier.