Shakshuka by Ottolenghi

Are you up for a dinner of ratatouille with egg with the perfect spicy touch? Yes, that's the charm of this recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi that Miriam (author of The Winter Guest ) brings us today. An addiction! Go get some bread...

The word shakshuka sounds so exotic… and even more so if we know that the recipe comes from the well-known and cool chef Yotam Ottolenghi , of Israeli origin, but based in the United Kingdom, from his book The Vegetarian Gourmet .

I'm going to proceed to take all the glamour out of this shakshuka : it's eggs on a plate, with a bed of sautéed vegetables that is suspiciously reminiscent of a Manchego ratatouille or an Almería tavern. I'm evil, but it's not my fault, I was drawn that way.

However, what sets it apart from more familiar preparations is the spicing . Furthermore, as Ottolenghi himself mentions in his book, it is a North African and Levantine dish that has many variations, many more exotic than the one we present here.

This shakshuka has the advantage that the vegetable stir-fry can be made in good quantities and in advance to liven up any dinner or quick meal: all you have to do is crack one or two eggs into a small frying pan or casserole lined with the stir-fry and cook them to be reasonably happy with a very balanced dish and imagine that you are in the old town of Jerusalem. Come on.

Skeppshult cast iron frying pan , Luigi Bormioli glass oiler , Mediterránea glass glasses and Mediterránea glass carafe .

Ingredients (for 4 people)

• 100ml olive oil
• 2 large onions
• 2 red Italian peppers
• 2 green Italian peppers
• 6 large, fleshy tomatoes
• ½ tsp. cumin seeds
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• Salt to taste
• Thyme to taste
• A good sprinkling of ground cayenne
• A good pinch of saffron threads
• Water (if necessary)
• 4 large eggs

Elaboration

1. We cut the onions to taste and fry them over low heat in a large frying pan with the oil, until they are transparent (in the original the onions are just sautéed, but I don't like them hard).
2. We cut the peppers into strips and fry them until the onion is to our liking, until they soften.
3. We add the cumin so that it toasts.
4. In a saucepan with boiling water, blanch the tomatoes for 1 minute to easily remove the skin. Peel and cut them into pieces, removing the seeds.
5. Add the tomatoes to the pan along with the cayenne pepper, sugar, bay leaves and saffron, and continue to fry until they soften and thicken into a sauce. If the mixture dries out too much, add a little water.
6. When the sofrito is ready, we divide it into small casseroles or frying pans that can be placed on the fire. In each of them or in two portions as seen in the photos, we make a hole in the sofrito and crack an egg.
7. Salt the egg and heat the pan or skillet over medium heat until the mixture is hot and the egg is set. If you don't want to risk the yolk curdling completely, as happened to me, you will have to put in only the white (you can use an egg separator ) and carefully pour in the yolk at the last moment.
8. We serve the shakshuka immediately, warm and with a good amount of bread to mop up.

Skeppshult cast iron skillet and Mediterranean glass carafe .

The combination of cumin with a hint of sweetness and a hint of spiciness is quite addictive, I can tell you… Try this shakshuka because you will like it, and you can also prepare it by the arroba for a rainy day, as the Anglo-Saxons say.