Breakfast,Lunch or Dinner

I first read about Shakshuka in a New York Times' article by Melissa Clark in 2013. I remember thinking at the time that it sounded like a great dish for an easy weeknight supper, although in Israel it is most often served at breakfast. Several years later, Yotam Ottolenghi published a recipe in his wonderful ode to vegetarian cooking, Plenty. Finally, I was sufficiently motivated to try the dish. What had I been waiting for? It has beautiful smoky, slightly spicy notes in the vegetable base; eggs never had it so good.

Shakshuka

 

I used Ottolenghi's recipe as the base, but made some changes as I went along.The recipe is originally designed to serve 4 people, but it can be easily reduced to by half.

SHAKSHUKA

(serves 4)

1. 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
2. 3/4 cup olive oil
3. 2 large onions, sliced
4. 2 red bell peppers, cut into 3/4-inch strips
5. 2 yellow bell peppers, cut into 3/4-inch strips
6. 4 teaspoons brown sugar
7. 2 bay leaves
8. 6 thyme sprigs, leaves picked and chopped
9. 2 TBS. chopped parsley
10. 2 TBS chopped cilantro
11. 6 ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
12. 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
13. pinch of Aleppo pepper
14. salt and black pepper
15. up to 1 1/8 cups of water
16. Feta cheese
17. 8 eggs

In a very large pan dry-roast the cumin seeds on high heat for 2 minutes. Add the oil and onions and saute for 5 minutes. Add the peppers, sugar and herbs and continue cooking on high heat for 5 to 10 minutes to get a nice color.

Add the tomatoes, turmeric, Aleppo pepper and some salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes. during the cooking keep adding water so that the mix has a pasta sauce consistency. Taste and adjust the seasoning. (You can make this mixture in advance.)

Remove the bay leaves and make gaps in the pepper mix and carefully break an egg into each gap. If you like Feta cheese, you can crumble some over the pepper mixture at this point.Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cover the pan with a lid. Cook on a very gentle heat for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the eggs are just set. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

Absolutely delicious!