Printer Friendly Version - An Eggs-elent Meal

When my daughter was home recently, we were in the mood for some spring-themed dishes, but spring-themed produce was still weeks away. So we settled on playing around with some egg dishes, and our menu included both shakshuka and a pavlova.

As for the shakshuka, the fun thing about this dish is that you can vary the taste by playing around with the spices. And it makes a great dish for entertaining, breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner because you can make the tomato sauce base ahead and then poach the eggs and melt the cheese right before you serve it. If you make it in a pretty pan, you can bring it to the table in that pan, bubbling hot, and right off the stove and serve it that way. It makes a nice presentation.

As for spices, because the dish originated in parts of North Africa and the Middle East, it’s sometimes considered traditional to use spices like cumin, paprika, and cayenne pepper. But any spices that originate from that area of the world play well with the dish. Garlic is often used. Cinnamon and nutmeg are sometimes added, or swapped in, for some of the other spices. Herbs are often added to the end, including cilantro for those who like it, and flat-leaf parsley for those who don’t. I’m a big fan of berbere–which can include chili, garlic, cumin, ginger, coriander, cinnamon, nigella, fenugreek, and ajowan–and I think that would go well in this dish. You can check your spice drawer to see what you have and use that, rather than going out to buy new spices. I think it would be fine with just cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper with cayenne to taste. You can also stir in cilantro stems, arugula, spinach, or other greens if you’d like.

When I made it a second time recently, I used cumin, sumac, rose harissa, smokey paprika, and cayenne to taste, and it was just delicious. I made it for friends, then had enough for breakfast the next day and dinner two days later, using fresh eggs for the last two meals. You can make the pavlova base the day before and have that ready to assemble for the dessert. Serve the shakshuka with pita bread or sourdough bread, add a side salad if you’d like, and you have a fun, easy-to-make meal that is easy to share with friends.

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup medium to large yellow onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
¼ teaspoon sea salt, more to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
5 to 6 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 to 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon sumac
1 to 2 teaspoons rose harissa
1 4.5 ounce tube of tomato paste
Cayenne pepper, to taste
2 to 3 14-ounce can crushed tomatoes or fire-roasted tomatoes
1 to 2 cups fresh spinach, arugula, or other greens, chopped

6 to 8 eggs
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
½ cup fresh parsley leaves
1 avocado, diced, optional
Cilantro, parsley, or microgreens for garnish, optional
Toasted pita bread or sourdough bread, for serving

1. Heat oil over medium heat in a 12-inch lidded stainless steel or enamel-coated cast-iron skillet, one that you can use to serve the dish at the table. Add chopped onion, red pepper, salt, and several grinds of fresh pepper and cook until the onion is soft and translucent, about 6 to 8 minutes.

2. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the garlic and spices. Stir and let cook for about 30 seconds. Add in the tomato paste, and cook so that the paste turns a nutty brown and the sugars in the tomato past caramelize. Add canned tomatoes. Simmer for 15 minutes until the sauce is thickened. Add greens, if using, and stir until wilted. If you are not serving this dish right away, this sauce can be stored for several days in the fridge.

3. When you are ready to serve it, reheat the tomato sauce over medium heat until it thickens a bit and gets bubbly. Use the back of the spoon to make wells for each of the eggs. Crack in the eggs. Cover and cook until eggs are set, about five to eight minutes depending on how well set you’d like the yolks. Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with feta, greens, avocado if using. Serve with bread.

Note: If you are sensitive to heat, you can omit the cayenne while cooking and provide it or a hot sauce when serving.

When make shakshuka, if you make the sauce ahead of time, you can poach the eggs and melt the cheese right before serving. Photo by Pem McNerney/The Source