Recipes › Tomato (Specialty) › Specialty Tomato Shakshuka with Feta and Za'atar
Specialty Tomato Shakshuka with Feta and Za'atar
Eggs poached directly in a deeply spiced, bubbling sauce of fresh specialty tomatoes, this is the kind of breakfast or lazy supper that makes you glad you grew your own. The tomatoes do all the heavy lifting — their acidity and sweetness balance the smoky paprika and cumin without needing any sugar. Crumbled feta and a shower of za'atar finish it off.
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Ingredients
- 900 g Tomato (Specialty), roughly choppedor use standard ripe vine tomatoes
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, finely sliced
- 1 red pepper, deseeded and finely sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, finely sliced
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp chilli flakes
- 4 eggs
- 100 g feta, crumbled
- 2 tsp za'atar
- 15 g flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped (optional)
- 1 tsp flaky sea salt
Contains: eggs.
Method
- Warm the olive oil in a large, deep frying pan (at least 28cm) over a medium heat. Add the onion and red pepper with a pinch of salt and cook, stirring occasionally, for 7 minutes until softened and starting to colour at the edges.About 7 min
- Add the garlic, smoked paprika, cumin and chilli flakes. Stir constantly for 1 minute until fragrant — don't let the garlic burn.About 1 min
- Tip in the chopped specialty tomatoes and the remaining salt. Crush them gently with the back of a spoon to help them break down. Raise the heat slightly and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has reduced and thickened and is no longer watery.About 10 min
- Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning. Use a spoon to make 4 wells in the sauce, spacing them evenly. Crack one egg into each well. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the pan with a lid and cook for 4–5 minutes, until the whites are just set but the yolks are still runny.About 5 min
- Remove the lid and immediately scatter over the crumbled feta, za'atar and parsley if using. Bring the pan straight to the table and serve with warm flatbreads or crusty bread for mopping.
Tips
- Use a mix of specialty tomato varieties — a combination of yellow, green zebra, and deep red types gives the sauce complex sweetness and acidity you simply cannot get from tinned tomatoes.
- If your tomatoes are on the less sweet side, resist the urge to add sugar; instead, let the sauce cook a couple of minutes longer and the natural sugars will concentrate.
- Cover the pan fully for runny yolks — if yours is a tight lid, check at 4 minutes. Once set, eggs keep cooking from residual heat.
Ring the changes
- To make this vegan, skip the eggs and feta entirely, stir in 400g of drained chickpeas with the tomatoes, and finish with a good drizzle of tahini.
- Add 100g of baby spinach to the sauce in the final 2 minutes of cooking before cracking in the eggs for extra greens.
Keeping it
The tomato sauce base keeps well in the fridge for 3 days — reheat it in the pan and add fresh eggs to order. Once the eggs are poached into the sauce, eat immediately; they do not reheat well.
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