06/19/2026
Your Farmers Market Recipe: SHAKSHOUKA
Around here, the market starts jumping when the homegrown tomatoes start coming in! It seems like everyone has to take home some fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes and slice them up for BLT sandwiches, or just for tomato sandwiches with white bread and mayonnaise. But there are some other things you can do with tomatoes, and here’s one from the other side of the world!
Tomatoes are native to Central America, but they’ve been enthusiastically adopted by cooks all over the world, over the past three hundred years or so. Shakshouka can be found, in various versions, all over northern Africa and the Middle East; it's become a popular brunch dish in Israel. It just goes to show that, no matter where you live or what language you speak, good food is good food! And good food is one thing that has the power to bring people together -- which is something the world needs right now.
You’ll need a fairly deep skillet (I swear by my cast iron), a knife, and a cooking spoon. If you use the more complicated method of making the tomato sauce, you’ll need a saucepan and a fairly large bowl.
Shopping list for the farmers’ market:
• eggs
• tomatoes (preferably Roma tomatoes or other paste tomatoes, although any variety will work)
• sweet peppers
• onions
• garlic (if it’s available)
• parsley (cilantro is also an option, if you’re one of the people who like it. Your call.)
• good crusty bread (or pick up pita or other flatbread at the supermarket)
Shopping list for the grocery store:
• olive oil or other cooking oil
• salt, paprika, cumin, coriander, and red pepper
• If tomatoes are out of season, you can use a 28-ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes. We promise not to tell anyone.
1. Peel and dice a large onion. Dice 1-2 sweet peppers and 3-4 cloves of garlic. If you want to keep the recipe quick and simple, dice 10-12 fresh tomatoes.
If you don’t mind a little more complexity: Tomato peels can add a bit of bitter flavor. The way to get rid of that is to blanch them. Start a pot of water boiling on the stove, and while it’s heating up, set up a big bowl of ice water. When the water is boiling, drop a tomato in (use a ladle to keep it from splashing) and let it boil for about 30 seconds or a bit longer. Scoop the tomato out with the ladle and drop it right into the ice water. Repeat with the rest of the tomatoes, boiling them one at a time. Once the tomatoes have cooled, you should find that the peel will slip right off with just gentle pressure from your fingers. Any tomato that holds on to its peel can go back in the boiling water for 30 seconds more. Once all your tomatoes are peeled, slice them in half and scoop out the jelly with the seeds. Chop the meaty flesh and use that in the recipe.
2. Sauté the onion with a little oil in the pan for a few minutes. Add the peppers and sauté for a few more minutes, until the onions are starting to look translucent. Then add the garlic and sauté for about a minute more.
3. Add the tomatoes, turn the heat down to medium, and let everything cook down. Use a spoon to stir all the ingredients periodically break up the tomatoes, until you have a thick chunky sauce. Add about a teaspoon each of the cumin, coriander, and paprika, plus a pinch of salt. Add a pinch of red pepper if you want. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings if you want to.
4. Use the back of a cooking spoon to make depressions in the sauce. Gently crack one egg into each depression, trying not to break the yolk. A large deep skillet will have room for six eggs. Let the eggs poach in the tomato sauce until the whites are done. Traditionally, the yolks are still runny when the dish is served, but if you don’t like them that way, you can keep cooking until the yolks are solid. We don't mind. It’s up to you.
5. Chop the parsley and sprinkle it on as a garnish. Serve each egg with a generous spoonful of the tomato sauce. Mop up the sauce with pieces of pita or lavash, or with slices of a crusty loaf of bread.
Variations: You could add flavor and a bit more protein by sprinkling crumbles or small chunks of feta cheese over the top of yoru shakshouka. If you feel the need to add meat, some cooks add chunks of lamb or beef. (We have a couple pf beef vendors at the market, but currently no one who has lamb, although the Flying C Ranch farm store usually has lamb in stock.) I would recommend about a pound of beef or lamb cut into small chunks. Brown the meat in a skillet and add it before you add the tomatoes.
The Italian version of shakshouka is called “eggs in purgatory” (uova in purgatorio), and it’s virtually identical except for the spices. Just substitute oregano, rosemary, and fresh basil for the cumin, paprika, and coriander, and there you have it.
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