Gather round the old iron skillet, kids – it’s fall cooking season. We’re lifting the ban on cooking with the oven and fully embracing the heat. We’re wearing layers, busting out extra blankets and eating piping hot Shakshuka for dinner.
Shakshuka is a great meal if you’re looking for something warm, creamy and a little eggy. It’s a Middle Eastern dish that traditionally consists of poached eggs in tomatoes and sauce, with onions and bell pepper, seasoned with cayenne, paprika and cumin. I love a good poached egg, and the creaminess of the tomatoes and feta are a perfect pairing.
Although you’ll need a cast iron skillet or similar stove-to-oven dish, the recipe is pretty easy for a weeknight dinner and doesn’t require ingredients that will break the bank. That said, you can dress it up as much as you want. I was on vacation in Boston recently, where Kaz and I ate our way through town. (Lobstah, chowdah, wicked good.) We had brunch at Milkweed, a restaurant in the Mission Hill neighborhood, and they served up an insane Shakshuka dish with homemade meatballs and challah bread. Wow wow wow. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t inspire me to turn right back around to my kitchen and make it. (Although for the sake of returning to more normal eating habits, I didn’t add meatballs or challah bread. Womp womp.)
Here’s the recipe I followed from the New York Times. Happy Shakshuka-ing!
Shakshuka with Feta
From The New York Times
Ingredients
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp sweet paprika
⅛ tsp cayenne, or to taste
1 (28-ounce) can whole plum tomatoes with juices, coarsely chopped
¾ tsp salt, more as needed
¼ tsp black pepper, more as needed
5 oz feta cheese, crumbled (about 1 1/4 cups)
6 large eggs
Chopped cilantro, for serving (optional)
Hot sauce, for serving (optional)
Directions
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Heat oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium-low heat. Add onion and bell pepper. Cook gently until very soft, about 10-15 minutes.
3. Add garlic and cook until tender, 1 to 2 minutes; stir in cumin, paprika and cayenne, and cook 1 minute.
4. Pour in tomatoes and season with 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; simmer until tomatoes have thickened, about 10 minutes. Stir in crumbled feta.
5. Gently crack eggs into skillet over tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Transfer skillet to oven and bake until eggs are just set, 7 to 10 minutes.
7. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve with hot sauce.
Test Kitchen Notes
The original NYT recipe suggests cooking the onions and peppers for 20 minutes, but I thought that was a little too long. I found 10-15 minutes works just as well, so long as the onions and peppers look soft and cooked down.
Alright, alright, I didn’t eat it with challah bread, but Kaz and I sure as heck mixed up some cheddar bay biscuits. I couldn’t help myself – this dish is perfect for sopping up bread in the creamy tomato sauce. Give it a dry, you won’t regret it.
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