Sausage Shakshouka

If I'm being honest, I'm not sure I've ever had a shakshouka before.  I've heard of them as they've gained popularity over the last few years, but I don't actually remember ever having one.  That means one of two things - I either have never eaten one or it wasn't good enough for me to remember.  It just seemed like time in our meal rotation that we should use up some of the San Marzano tomatoes we had laying around and not use it in a pasta recipe.  Once of the things that I love about cooking is that once you have an idea of a recipe, you can kind of wing it and make it your own.  When I was first looking into how to make a shakshouka, I found a recipe that had sausage in it, but then couldn't find that recipe again.  So I figured that I would just do what I thought made sense and make it work.  The basic shakshouka recipe I found also only called for one red bell pepper, but I love peppers, so I decided to add two.  So use this recipe as inspiration, but don't feel like you have to stick to it 100%.  I rarely ever actually follow a recipe when it comes to cooking (now baking is a different story).

I'll tell you, although this was possibly my first shakshouka, it will definitely not be my last.  I used sweet Italian sausage in my shakshouka, but I think next time I'll use a hot Italian sausage to give it some additional heat.  Otherwise, this was absolutely perfect and didn't last nearly as long as I anticipated it would.  Ryan and I kept going back in for more after dinner - just one more bite!  That's the true sign of a good recipe.

Total Time: 25-30 minutes

Servings: 4-5

Ingredients:

1 lb sausage

2 large red bell peppers, chopped

1 28 oz can of tomato

6 oz tomato paste

6 eggs

1 tsp cayenne

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp cumin

5 cloves garlic, minced

cilantro, roughly chopped

avocado, for topping

Instructions:

1. Heat a large cast iron skillet over high heat.  Turn the heat down to medium, add the de-cased sausage and brown.
2. When sausage is about 1/2 way cooked (about 5-7 minutes in), add bell peppers & garlic and cook until peppers are soft and garlic is fragrant.
3. Add the canned tomato, tomato paste, seasonings and saute for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Make 6 small wells and crack the eggs into them. Cook for 6-8 mins until eggs are done to your liking.
5. Top with cilantro, avocado and hot sauce if desired.

Here's what an individual serving looked like - notice how you can see the chunks of bell pepper and sausage?  That's what makes this shakshouka amazing.

Nutrition Facts:

Calories: 570

Protein: 23g

Carbs: 20g

Fat: 47g