It’s 92°F (33°c) in Olvera with punishingly strong sun, so you can’t even think about going outside until around 8pm when it starts to gradually cool down. When it’s hot, you start thinking of cooking in different ways, with different ingredients. The thought of turning on the oven is a conceptual torture. Only a sicko would do it. Even one burner on the stovetop heats up the kitchen like a dry sauna in minutes. That’s why I’m cooking in my underwear. Pants — even a shirt — are just too much in this weather. And luckily there’s an outdoor shower just off the kitchen that only sprays cold water.
Beyond glacially cold beer, the only thing I crave — and it does require one burner unfortunately — is shakshouka, the tomato and egg one-pot recipe that comes from either the Maghreb in North Africa or the Middle East, or the area of present day Israel, or Yemen, depending on who you ask. American cookbook author and James Beard award winner Joan Nathan says that the dish originated in Ottoman North Africa in the mid-16th century after tomatoes were introduced to the region by explorer Hernan Cortés as part of the Columbian exchange. North Africa is incredibly close to where I am in Andalusia. Without political and religious boundaries, there’s no doubt North Africa and southern Spain would be considered the same region. The culture, the food and even the aesthetic and building styles are all the same. So shakshouka could be Spanish too, I decide, since no one culture can claim the dish completely as their own.
According to Gil Marks, who wrote The Encyclopedia of Jewish Food, ingredients from the New World — tomatoes and peppers — were introduced to the stew slowly over time, so at one point shakshouka must have been a very different kind of dish, and certainly not tomato based, probably based on onions, lamb and herbs. According to Marks, shakshouka got given a Jewish twist when North African Jews eliminated the meat to make the dish kosher, and in Tunisia especially, where Jewish populations were known for their egg dishes, the eggs in the dish became an important source of protein.
The word shakshouka — شَكْشُوكَةٌ in Arabic — simply means “a mixture” or “mixed up.” The dish is versatile and adaptable, but always includes eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, olive oil, peppers, onion and garlic. For spices, there is commonly cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg. Some modern adaptations include oregano or thyme, basil or marjoram.
Shakshouka lends itself very well to condiments and additions. Various varieties of pesto, chimichurri, harissa, gremolata, Greek yogurt and spicy pepper sauces of all types all work incredibly well with it. Many cheeses work well, too from fresh sheep and goat milk cheeses to feta, buffalo mozzarella or even something cured like cheddar, blue, or manchego.
As you can gather, this is a dish that plays nicely with nearly everyone, and I think this reflects the region the dish comes from, a crossroads and an ancient place, where humans have lived for millennia, and where cultures mixed, influenced one another, clashed and then made nice again over and over again for thousands of years.
Shakshouka has been declared a superfood by many dietitians and it’s easy to see why. It was even included in the Lonely Planet book,The World’s Best Superfoods. It’s almost vegetarian, at least in its most traditional form. It’s packed full of vegetables and olive oil and when did a poached egg ever hurt anyone?
So my call to action is this: please cook this dish, please experiment with it, get creative, make it green, orange, red, yellow. Don’t make it blue. But seriously, take the thousands of years of this concept and advance it and make it yours. And respect those who came before you by always including garlic. Just kidding — you don’t have to. All you really have to do is enjoy the process, enjoy the eating and enjoy sharing it with family and friends. And cook it in your underwear on a hot summer day.
Shakshouka de Olvera (change the location to wherever you are)
Ingredients
2–3 eggs (per person) I really like eggs. Use fewer if you insist.
2–3 tomatoes, local if available. Rosa variety preferred, but any ripe tomatoes will do, and canned whole Roma tomatoes will work, too.
1 large red pepper.
2 Anaheim peppers, or other green peppers. I think Bell peppers would leave the dish lacking, but I don’t really like the green ones in anything.
1 red or yellow onion, medium size. I prefer red for the color.
4–10 cloves of garlic, depending on your mood. I’d go with a lot.
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil. Or more. It’s liquid gold.
Oregano, dried or fresh.
Red pepper flakes.
Splash of Sherry vinegar (or red wine vinegar).
Parsley, cilantro or basil for garnish, if you’ve got it.
Method
This is the easiest part of this dish. It’s basically cut and cook. But the order of ingredients is important, in order to pull the most flavor out of each one, creating a symphony of aroma, texture and taste.
Prep
Start by cutting the onion — a nice rustic chop — and then mince or smash your garlic (I like how Jacques Pepín always smashes his garlic instead of chopping it). Chop the peppers even more roughly, or even tear them into chunks. This is not a dish for people who care about fancy knife skills. Same with the tomatoes. Rougher the better, but make sure not to lose the liquid. That helps with the consistency of the dish.
Cooking
Heat up your extra virgin olive oil on medium in a nice pot — a shallow cast iron or any other kind of shallow pan really. You don’t want the shakshouka to be too deep or it may maintain too much liquid and be just a bit too saucy.
Add the onions first, until they soften. While they’re cooking, add salt, pepper, hot red pepper flakes if you want them, and oregano. Once the onion is soft, add the peppers. Let these marry in the pot for five minutes and then add the garlic. Once all this is nice and happy after maybe five more minutes, add the tomatoes, more salt and pepper, and the splash of sherry vinegar. That sherry vinegar really adds a certain zing, so try not to skip it. When this starts to look like a sauce — a very rustic sauce, after about ten minutes tops — add the eggs, cracking each one carefully into the sauce and spaced evenly around the pan.
Waiting
Then you have a glass of wine and wait about 10–15 minutes. You don’t want the egg yolks to harden. That would practically ruin the dish, although I’d still eat it. Once the eggs look cooked — and there’s nothing wrong with a little soft white because you can just mix it in on your place — present the pan to your eating companions. I like to use bowls, but plates would work too. North African ceramic bowls would be ideal.
Eating
I recommend serving with garlic bread, pita, or a hunk of nice whole grain bread with a small bowl of olive oil. While eating, plan the next shakshouka variation for tomorrow. Okay, maybe that’s just me.
Let me know if you make the dish, and follow me on Instagram if you’d like.