Name: Shakshuka (North African eggs in tomato-pepper sauce)
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: North African
Ingredients: 6 eggs; 3 tbsp olive oil; 1 onion · finely diced; 3 cloves garlic cloves · finely chopped; 2 bell peppers · one red and one yellow, cut into strips; 800 g canned chopped tomatoes · two cans; 1 tsp ground cumin; 1 tsp sweet paprika; ½ tsp chili flakes · or to taste; salt, to taste; black pepper, to taste; 100 g feta · crumbled; 1 handful flat-leaf parsley · roughly chopped; 4 flatbread · warm, for serving

Shakshuka comes from North Africa and in Tunisia it is a classic for the evening or the weekend. Eggs cook in a spiced sauce of tomato, pepper and cumin, and at the table you mop up the rest with flatbread. You only need one pan and ingredients that are usually already in the house.

What carries the dish is the sauce. The peppers and onion have to soften properly before the tomatoes go in, or everything stays watery and sharp. Cumin and paprika toast briefly in the oil, then they smell of more than just powdered spice. The sauce needs to be thick enough that the eggs hold their wells and do not float away.

Best to put the pan straight on the table. Everyone spoons out an egg with sauce and dunks the bread after. If the yolk is still runny, it mixes into the tomato on its own and makes the sauce silkier. Six eggs are plenty for four when there is bread too.

Shakshuka

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