My cooking game has really taken a nosedive the past few weeks. The number of things I’m juggling – a new role at work, relationships, traveling, a seemingly never-ending to-do list that for some reason doesn’t involve standing by the stove – keeps growing, but the number of hours in a day or week hasn’t changed. I’ve still managed to get out a few projects, but the area that’s suffered the most is the weeknight dinner (also the workday lunch, but this was always the more ambitious of the two). I’ve found myself way too often resorting to ordering dinner and subsequently getting mad at myself for eating way too many Thai noodles.
Shakshuka, the classic Middle Eastern dish of eggs baked in a spicy tomato sauce, is the perfect answer to the kinds of nights I’m having. I’ve always got eggs on hand, and the sauce comes together quickly and easily, with pantry ingredients and a few fresh vegetables that can come from your most unremarkable neighborhood grocery store (looking at you, Gristedes). This version of the dish is from the very remarkable cookbook Persiana, one I go back to again and again for extremely flavorful but not-too-challenging dishes that are always a little unexpected and incredibly delicious.
You could make this for breakfast. You could make it for dinner after a tough work day, when the idea of eating a bowl of something hot and comforting sounds just right, and dragging a hunk of fresh baguette or pita through the whole mess is exactly the kind of utensil usage you had in mind. You could make it for dinner for your friends in your little house in the Vermont woods after a day of skiing (can you tell this is what I did last weekend? Minus the shakshuka. But it would have been perfect.)
The end of February and beginning of March is always the most depressing time of the year for me, and this week we’re having a particularly frigid week of weather. It’s hard to believe that in a few weeks, we’ll be able to start lightening up those jackets and trading in roasting and braising for grilling and searing. Buckle up!
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 5 garlic cloves, bashed and thinly sliced
- 3 large red onions, cut in half and sliced into 1/2-inch (1cm) thick half moons
- 2 teaspoons turmeric
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3 tablespoons harissa
- 6 large tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 1 14 oz. (400g) can diced tomatoes
- Sea salt
- 2 3/4 oz. (20g) packets of cilantro, leaves picked and roughly chopped
- 14 oz. (400g) feta cheese
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 8 large eggs
Instructions
- To make the sauce, preheat a saucepan over medium heat and drizzle in just enough oil to lightly coat the base of the pan. Saute the garlic slivers and onion slices until they begin to soften and become translucent. Add the turmeric, coriander, cumin and cinnamon and stir well before adding the harissa paste. Put in the fresh and canned tomatoes, season generously with sea salt and give everything a good stir, then reduce the temperature slightly and allow the sauce to cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Select a large baking dish (or 2 smaller dishes) and pour the spicy tomato sauce into it. Scatter the chopped cilantro onto the sauce (but save a handful for garnishing the finished dish) and give the mixture a very gentle stir to loosely incorporate the chopped leaves into the sauce. Break off 1 inch chunks of feta and dot them all around the dish, pushing some down under the sauce and leaving some on the surface. Make 8 evenly spaced craters in the surface and crack your eggs into them. Season the dish well with black pepper and another sprinkling of sea salt, then bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the whites of the eggs have turned opaque and are cooked through.
- Remove from the oven, sprinkle the last handful of chopped cilantro leaves over the dish and serve with bread.
Notes
From Persiana
