Ready in 60 minutes
Serves 4 as a main or 8 as a side
Adapted from Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi
We used to love to make this for everyone who stayed overnight after our yearly pig roast. Honestly, we haven’t had a pig roast since COVID but they were fun. It easily scales to feed a crowd and has a unique flavor from harissa. We serve it with good bread or homemade bagels and it’s a tasty breakfast which can be prepared to be very spicy if the crowd is up for that.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons lard
2 tablespoons harissa
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 red peppers, diced
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
5 tomatoes, chopped (canned tomatoes are also fine -- use 5 cups)
8 eggs
3/4 teaspoon salt
Preparation
- Heat oven to 400 F
- Heat lard in cast iron skillet over medium heat
- Add harissa, peppers, tomato paste, garlic, cumin, and salt. Stirring, cook over medium heat for about 8 minutes, allowing the peppers to soften
- Add tomatoes to the pan and bring everything to a simmer
- Simmer for 10 minutes until the sauce is thickened
- Transfer sauce into a 9x13" greased casserole dish. Make 8 wells in the sauce and carefully break an egg into each well
- Bake for 8-10 minutes until egg whites are set but yolks are still runny (this step takes longer if your sauce has cooled significantly or if you have a very cold casserole dish)
Tips
Harissa can be bought in stores or online. If you're really looking for a labor of love, you can make it at home, but it requires quite a few spices and about 2 hours. We've also successfully made this dish skipping the harissa altogether -- just use a bit more salt and serve with a splash of olive oil.
This dish is traditionally served with a scoop of full-fat plain yogurt (or labneh), but we usually skip that, too. We're simple dogs.
Last Modified: 2025-08-30