Shakshuka: eggs in a tomato and pepper sauce, one pan
The North African and Middle Eastern breakfast that became a weekend classic in Poland: a thick sauce of tomatoes, pepper and onion with sweet paprika and cumin, and eggs braised in it under a lid until the whites set and the yolks stay runny. Feta, parsley and bread for mopping up. In summer from ripe tomatoes, the rest of the year from passata; one pan and half an hour.
Your own work in that: 20 min.
- Vegetables 12 min
- Sauce thickening 15 min
- Eggs 8 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneSoften the onion and pepper
Prepare the tomatoes first: blanch, peel and dice them (skip this with passata). Dice the onion and pepper into 1 cm pieces. Heat the olive oil in a wide pan (cast iron with a lid is ideal) and fry the vegetables over medium heat 7–8 minutes, until soft and the onion translucent. Add the chopped garlic for the last minute.
Ingredients: 3 tbsp olive oil · 1 pcs onion · 1 pcs red pepper · 3 cloves garlic · 800 g ripe tomatoes · 2 tsp sweet paprika · 1 tsp ground cumin · ½ tsp chilli flakes · 1 pinch sugar · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
TipThe pepper needs these minutes to soften before the tomatoes go in: in an acidic sauce it softens much more slowly.
Onion, pepper, garlic lastAdd the spices
Add the paprika, cumin and chilli, fry 30 seconds, stirring, until fragrant. No longer: ground paprika burns fast and turns bitter.
Half a minute for the spices to bloomMake the sauce
Straight after the spices, add the tomatoes (or pour in the passata) with the salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar. Simmer uncovered over low heat 15 minutes, until the sauce is thick enough that a spoon dragged across the bottom leaves a trail. A thin sauce won't hold the eggs in their wells.
TipIn winter passata beats pale imported tomatoes. From passata the sauce thickens in 10 minutes.
Thick: the spoon leaves a trailAdd the eggs
Make 4 wells in the sauce with a spoon. Crack each egg into a small bowl and slide it into a well; from the bowl it lands exactly where it should, and without shell. Salt the whites lightly.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs · 100 g feta · ½ bunch flat-leaf parsley
Four wells, eggs from a bowlBraise under a lid
Cover and cook over low heat 6–8 minutes: the whites should be fully set, the yolks still runny. Check after 6 minutes by shaking the pan: the whites must not wobble. The lid traps steam, which sets the whites from above.
TipLike your yolks set? Two minutes longer. Without a lid the tops of the whites stay raw and the bottom of the sauce scorches.
Whites set, yolks runny, six to eight minutesFeta, parsley, bread
Take off the heat, crumble the feta over, sprinkle with parsley. Serve straight from the pan, with bread for scooping up the sauce and yolks. The sauce without eggs keeps 3 days in the fridge: in the morning just reheat and add the eggs.
Ingredients: 4 pcs bread or pita
From the pan, bread into the yolk
Before you start
With sausage or chorizo
100 g sliced sausage fried with the onion: more filling, less vegetarian, very Polish.
Green
Instead of tomatoes, 300 g spinach and a handful of peas braised with the onion and cream: green shakshuka, the spring version.
For two or for four
Double the sauce and use a 30 cm pan: it holds 8 eggs. For one: half the sauce and 2 eggs in a small pan.
