Yesterday I forgot my wallet and I came home starving, feeling like Oliver Twist- all that abundance in the coffee shops and no money to buy anything! haha! However, I didn’t despair, knowing I had most of the ingredients needed for a shakshuka at home. ‘Cause what else can be better than a warm pan of tomato sauce, eggs and feta? Preferably with a generous slice of sourdough bread, but it worked fine with bread crackers, too.

I’ve been too busy and too tired for any wonders in the kitchen lately, furthermore it’s already dark by the time I get started on dinner and I don’t get to take any pictures, which makes the whole experience considerably less fun! 😦 Haha! But this one is great recipe to know, so easy and so comforting and, as a friend of mine put it, “it’s the kind of food we should have been brought up eating and yet we haven’t!” She’s Serbian, I’m Romanian, I couldn’t agree more and yet the dish is Israeli, but I can imagine it having been served in Eastern-Europe before the war, too. In fact, the mother of a friend called them “French eggs”, so she must have made a similar attempt.

My fondness for Shakshuka is new, in fact I discovered it this spring in Amsterdam, where I had it for breakfast at NEWWERKTHEATER and fell in love with it at once. Since, I’ve tasted both KUMI‘s and FRIDA KAHLO‘s Bistro and just had to try it at home!

Ingredients

olive oil

2-3 eggs

a can of tomatoes

2-3 garlic cloves

1/2- 1 onion

1/2 bell pepper (didn’t have either)

parsley (I used thyme, thyme over parsley anytime here!)

cumin (didn’t have in the house, so I made do without)

paprika powder (my take on it)

feta cheese (cause I could have feta in everything!)

pepper

Chopp the garlic and onion, gently fry them in olive oil until translucent. Add the tomatoes, bell pepper, cumin and paprika powder and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. Make room for the eggs and poach them in the sauce, using a lid to help them form a white membrane.

Serve with parsley/thyme, crumbled feta, pepper and a dash of olive oil, if you will.

Lovely with bread! ❤

Suggestion: I can imagine this dish being amazing cooked in ajvar, so I’m running to Grønland today to get some!

Bon appetit!

xxx, Alina