Thomas’ favourite recipe

This authentic shakshuka is a guaranteed success!

I have a very simple recipe for a delicious meal that is also perfect for newbies in the cooking world.

What you need:

2–3 garlic cloves, according to taste
2–3 green chillies (red ones will work as well, but it looks better with green ones)
800 g aromatic tomatoes—buy good quality ones, since they provide the taste
neutral oil (e.g. sunflower oil)
4 eggs
some flat-leaf parsley
mild paprika powder
salt and pepper
white bread—as ciabatta or something similar (which is good for soaking up sauce)
a deep pan (25–28 cm wide, 5–10 cm high)

Some preparations:

Peel the garlic cloves and chop them finely. Cut the chillies into slices—if you want it spicier, leave the seeds in, otherwise you can remove them. Cut the tomatoes into quarters and remove the stem. Mince the parsley.

And now the cooking part begins:

Heat the oil in a pan, first sauté the chillies and shortly afterwards add the garlic to sauté as well. After about a minute, add the tomatoes and mix everything together. Reduce the heat so that everything is simmering. After 5 minutes, add about 1 teaspoon of paprika powder and season with salt and pepper. Now you can let it simmer for 20 minutes. Then add the eggs, but do not scramble the yolks! Use a spoon to carefully spread the egg white around in loops. It should simmer just long enough for the yolks to still be soft. This will take about 6–7 minutes. Take the pan off the heat. It will still continue to cook due to the residual heat from the pan. Now add the parsley and eat from the pan (enough for two people).

Thomas Fritsche is the managing director of USV Jena. You can read more about him hereExternal link.