CSA Week 14 - August 31st - shakshuka

A recipe for shakshuka recently came across my NY Times Cooking Newsletter and piqued my interest. 

It's is mixture of onions, peppers, and tomatoes seasoned with cumin and cooked down, then topped with eggs and baked. This version (and Melissa Clark's) includes feta. I highly recommend it!

Shakshuka
Adapted from here and here

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp. cooking oil
• 1 medium red onion (or other type of onion), chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 medium red bell pepper, chopped (I used two small CSA 'Lipstick' peppers)
• 4 cups diced tomatoes
• 2 tbsp. tomato paste
• 1 tsp. cumin, preferably ground from whole seeds
• 1 tsp. paprika
• Minced cayenne pepper or a few pinches of ground cayenne pepper to taste (Optional. We actually ate it with schug so I omitted the hot pepper completely. I would probably add some if I wasn't using schug.)
• A few pinches of sugar
• A few big pinches of salt
• Ground black pepper
• 5 eggs
• About 6 ounces feta cheese (I used a soft Bulgarian sheep feta, which was delicious. It didn't stay intact, but melted into the dish once incorporated, so if you want pockets of feta like Melissa Clark indicates, use a drier feta.)
• Bread, pasta, and/or summer squash for serving [I loved it with roasted summer squash (summer squash, garlic, oil, salt, pepper, Parmesan], Jonathan preferred it without).
• Cilantro and/or parsley for serving if desired. As I noted above, we ate it with schug so I omitted the fresh herbal topping.

Directions 

• Preheat oven to 375 F
• Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium
• Add the onion and saute until it begins to soften
• Add the sweet pepper and saute until softened, a few more minutes
• Add the garlic and saute until fragrant
• Add the tomatoes and tomato paste and stir to blend
• Add the spices, salt, and sugar, and allow to simmer until reduced/thickened
• Taste and adjust seasonings, but remember that you're adding feta!
• Remove from heat and mix in feta
• Top with ground black pepper 
• Crack the eggs, one at a time, directly over the tomato mixture, making sure to space them evenly over the sauce.
• Transfer to the oven and cook, uncovered, until the eggs are cooked to your liking, 10 minutes for runny yolks and 12-13 minutes for cooked yolks. 
• Garnish with cilantro, parsley, and/or schug (Jonathan liked the schug with this more than I did). Update 9/19/15 - this was delicious with leftover salsa verde from this in place of any other herbal toppings or schug. 
• Serve with roasted squash, bread, and/or pasta.