Shakshuka!

When I was growing up, eggs for dinner were usually a sign that money was tight. Maybe my brothers and I needed dental work that month, or we’d just had to go shopping for new clothes and school supplies, or the car has broken down. As a child, I wasn’t completely aware of my parents’ financial situation, but I could usually read the dinner table to to get a sense for how comfortable we were at any given point. And even more so by whether my parents were joking about it, or serving us pancakes at night with grim faces. We weren’t by any means poor, but my parents were young, and just getting started out in life. There were times when eggs for dinner were a necessity.

I don’t remember when I first heard that some people eat eggs for dinner by choice. But somewhere along the line, it started to seem romantic to have an omelette and a glass of wine. Frittatas started making an appearance on my own table, and not only for brunch.

When I read about shakshuka on Smitten Kitchen, I was instantly intrigued. It was an entirely new idea to me, to eat eggs with tomato sauce. It seemed like a wonderful savory way to bring eggs to dinner. And the name is maybe the most fun thing you can say. It’s nearly impossible for me to write it without an exclamation mark. Shakshuka! It sounds like an incantation.

And it tastes pretty magical as well. I will admit that I overcooked my eggs, and didn’t end up with the yolky tomato sauce I envisioned, but I was still delighted by shakshuka. This is a spicy, warming dinner. It’s comfort food even if you’ve never heard of it before. I didn’t make my version as spicy as I could have, but it was still lively. I will absolutely be making this again, and I can’t wait to play around with it, to make it my own the way one does with those particular dishes that are worth falling in love with.

Shakshuka

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen. I used tomatoes that we had in the freezer from last summer. I thawed them, peeled the skins off, and crushed them between my fingers. You can use whole fresh tomatoes, but if you do, you’ll want to blanch them and peel them. Whole canned tomatoes might be the easiest way to go.

• a few tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• 2 (or more) anaheim chiles, seeded and diced
• 3-5 cloves of garlic, minced (use to your taste, and depending on the size of the cloves)
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 1/2 tablespoons ground paprika
• 1 28-ounce can of whole, peeled tomatoes or about 6 fresh tomatoes, blanched and peeled
• salt to taste
• 4 eggs
• pita breads, feta, and parsley or slivered spinach to serve

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add the oil, and when it’s hot, add the onion. Saute for about three minutes, until the onion is soft and golden. Stir in the chiles, and let soften for another two or three minutes. Then add the garlic, cumin, and paprika. Stir well, and let cook for about 30 seconds.

Crush the tomatoes a bit with your hands, then add to the skillet with all their juices. Give it all a good stir. I like to use scissors to cut up the tomatoes even more in the pan; it’s less messy than cutting them on a cutting board. Let the sauce cook for about fifteen minutes, adding water if the mixture looks dry. Season to taste with salt.

Lower the heat, and crack the eggs over the skillet, being careful not to break the yolks. Space them evenly into the sauce. Cover the pan and cook for three to five minutes, depending on how well done you like your eggs. Mine were thoroughly cooked after five minutes. Serve sprinkled with feta and parsley or spinach, with pita to dip (I used the spinach because its all we had, and I really liked it; it was baby spinach so it wasn’t too tough.)