I can never stop at one bite with this dish. My plates are always empty by the end

Now, stir all of these ingredients together. This is when the bread really absorbs all of the ingredients, and the mixture should be pretty thick and chunky at this point. As you can see in the image below, almost all the fluid has been absorbed by the bread.

Bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes, until the top is lightly browned and the mixture is thickened. As you can see in the photo below, the mixture should be mostly cooked into casserole form.

Keep an eye on it every 10-15 minutes as it cooks. You can also remove the casserole dish after about 30 minutes and cover it with aluminum foil for the last 15 minutes if the top is getting browned too quickly. Oven cook times often vary (I grew up with an oven that had a broken bottom heating element. That always made following recipe cook times very interesting) so you'll want to make adjustments for your own appliance.

Now, it's time to grab a blanket, light up the fireplace, and chow down on your piping hot stewed tomato casserole!