Shakshuka

Photo by Andy Li, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Description

Shakshuka is eggs poached directly in a spiced tomato and pepper sauce, cooked and served in the same pan. It is a North African and Levantine breakfast dish that has quietly become a dinner dish everywhere else, mostly because it takes half an hour and one pan.

The only real technique here is knowing when to stop. Pull the pan off the heat while the whites have just set and the yolks still move, because they will keep cooking on the way to the table. Serve it with bread, not cutlery.

Ingredients

• 6 large eggs
• 2 red bell peppers, sliced into strips
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 tin (400 g) chopped tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
• Half a teaspoon smoked paprika
• A pinch of chilli flakes, to taste
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 100 g feta, crumbled
• A small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• Salt and black pepper
• Crusty bread or flatbread, to serve

Steps

1. Heat the olive oil in a wide, heavy frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and peppers with a good pinch of salt and cook for 12 to 15 minutes, until genuinely soft and starting to caramelise at the edges.
2. Add the garlic, cumin, both paprikas and the chilli flakes. Stir for one minute, until the spices smell toasted rather than raw.
3. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for another minute, then add the chopped tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, until the sauce has thickened enough that a spoon dragged through it leaves a channel for a second or two.
5. Make six shallow wells in the sauce with the back of a spoon and crack an egg into each one. Season the eggs.
6. Cover the pan and cook on low for 6 to 9 minutes, until the whites are set but the yolks are still soft. Check early; they go from perfect to overdone quickly.
7. Scatter over the feta and parsley, and take the pan straight to the table with plenty of bread.