Mary Berry’s ‘quick and easy’ shakshuka is made with store-cupboard ingredients

This delicious egg dish can be made “quickly and easily” with store-cupboard ingredients, Mary Berry says.

Hailing from the Maghreb region of North Africa, shakshuka consists of gently poached eggs over a simmering mixture – with its namesake roughly translating from Maghrebi-Arabic to “mixture” – of tomatoes, peppers, onions and garlic, as well as spices and herbs. However, there are many variations of the dish around the region spanning across the former Ottoman Empire.

You can use this Michelin-star approved hack to get the “perfect” poached egg.

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Instructions

1. You will need a deep frying pan or sauté pan with a lid.
2. Heat the oil in a deep frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the onions and fry for 5 minutes.
3. Add the garlic and chilli and fry for 30 seconds. Stir in the chopped tomatoes, sun-dried tomato paste and sugar and bring up to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer gently, without a lid, for about 10 minutes, until the sauce has reduced and thickened and the onion is tender. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
4. Using the back of a spoon, make four dips in the sauce and carefully crack an egg into each one. Cover the pan with a lid and simmer on the hob over a gentle heat for about 6 minutes, or until the whites are set but the yolks are runny.
5. Serve immediately from the pan with pitta or crusty bread.

This recipe was originally published on Mary Berry’s website.