Shakshouka is a

Maghreb The Maghreb (; ), also known as the Arab Maghreb () and Northwest Africa, is the western part of the Arab world. The region comprises western and central North Africa, including Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. The Maghreb al ...

i dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, olive oil, peppers, onion, and garlic, commonly spiced with

cumin Cumin (, ; ; ''Cuminum cyminum'') is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native to the Irano-Turanian Region. Its seeds – each one contained within a fruit, which is dried – are used in the cuisines of many cultures in both whole ...

paprika Paprika is a spice made from dried and ground red peppers, traditionally ''capsicum annuum''. It can have varying levels of Pungency, heat, but the peppers used for hot paprika tend to be milder and have thinner flesh than those used to produce ...

, and

cayenne pepper The cayenne pepper is a type of ''Capsicum annuum''. It is usually a hot chili pepper used to flavor dishes. Cayenne peppers are a group of tapering, 10 to 25 cm long, generally skinny, mostly red-colored peppers, often with a curved ti ...

. Shakshouka is a popular dish throughout

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

Etymology

''Shakshuka'' is a word for "mixture" in

Algerian Arabic Algerian Arabic (, romanized: ), natively known as , or , is a variety of Arabic spoken in Algeria. It belongs to the Maghrebi Arabic dialect continuum and is mostly intelligible with the Tunisian and Moroccan dialects. Darja () means "eve ...

, and "mixed" in

Tunisian Arabic Tunisian Arabic, or simply Tunisian (), is a Varieties of Arabic, variety of Arabic spoken in Tunisia. It is known among its 13 million speakers as ''Tūnsi'', "Tunisian" or ''Maghrebi Arabic, Derja'' (; meaning "common or everyday dialect") t ...

. The ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

'' describes the English version of the word as being borrowed from more than one origin: an

onomatopoeic Onomatopoeia (or rarely echoism) is a type of word, or the process of creating a word, that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Common onomatopoeias in English include animal noises such as ''oink'', '' ...

Maghribi Arabic word, related to the verb ''shakshaka'' meaning "to bubble, to sizzle, to be mixed up, to be beaten together", and the

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

word ''Chakchouka'', which was borrowed into English in the nineteenth century, and which itself had been borrowed into French from Algerian Arabic.

History

Gil Marks Gilbert Stanley Marks (; May 30, 1952 – December 5, 2014) was an American food writer and historian noted for his reference and cookbooks on the subject of Jewish food. He was the founding editor of ''Kosher Gourmet'' magazine. He moved to Isra ...

, while noting some similarities with the Ottoman dish

menemen Menemen () is a municipality and district of İzmir Province, Turkey. Its area is 573 km2, and its population is 200,904 (2022). The district extends on a fertile plain formed by the alluvial soil carried by the Gediz River. Adjacent distric ...

, suggests that shakshouka evolved from

şakşuka Şakşuka is a Turkish side dish or meze made of vegetables cooked in olive oil. The particular vegetable may vary from region to region, but eggplant Eggplant (American English, US, Canadian English, CA, Australian English, AU, Philipp ...

which spread to the Maghreb through the influence of the Ottoman Empire. Anthony Buccini noted similarities between a wider range of vegetable stews. He and

Noam Sienna Noam Sienna is a sofer, author, and Jewish educator in Minneapolis. Education Sienna graduated Brandeis University in 2011. In May 2020, he graduated from the University of Minnesota with a PhD in Jewish history. Henna The topic of Sienna's ...

conclude that both shakshouka and menemen, among other dishes like

piperade Piperade ( Gascon and French) or piperrada (Basque and Spanish), from ''piper'' (pepper in Gascon and in Basque), is a typical Gascon and Basque dish prepared with onion, green peppers, and tomatoes sautéd and flavoured with red Espelette ...

and

ratatouille Ratatouille ( , ; ) is a French Provençal dish of stewed vegetables that originated in Nice and is sometimes referred to as ''ratatouille niçoise'' (). Recipes and cooking times differ widely, but common ingredients include tomato, garlic ...

, are members of a wider family of vegetable stews of common ancestry appearing throughout the western Mediterranean. The migration of

Maghrebi Jews :''See Mizrahi Jews for more information about the Eastern Jews.'' Maghrebi Jews ( or , ''Maghrebim''), are a Jewish diaspora group with a long history in the Maghreb region of North Africa, which includes present-day Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, ...

in the 1950s brought the dish to Israel, where it was subsequently widely adopted. The dish was not previously present in

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

Levantine cuisine Levantine cuisine is the traditional cuisine of the Levant, in the sense of the rough area of former Ottoman Syria. The cuisine has similarities with Egyptian cuisine, North African cuisine and Ottoman cuisine. It is particularly known for its ...

. Shakshouka began appearing in Israeli restaurants in the 1990s.

Variations

Many variations of the basic sauce are possible, varying in spice and sweetness. Some cooks add

preserved lemon Preserved lemon or lemon pickle is a condiment that is common in the cuisines of the Indian subcontinent and Morocco. It was also found in 18th-century English cuisine. It is also known as "country lemon" and ''leems''. Diced, quartered, halve ...

, salty

sheep milk cheese Sheep milk cheese is a cheese prepared from sheep milk. Well-known cheeses made from sheep milk include the feta of Greece, Roquefort of France, manchego from Spain, the pecorino romano and ricotta of Italy. Yogurts, especially some forms ...

s, olives,

harissa Harissa (, from Maghrebi Arabic) is a hot chili pepper paste, native to the Maghreb. The main ingredients are roasting#Vegetables, roasted chili pepper, red peppers, Baklouti peppers (), spices and herbs such as garlic paste, caraway seeds, c ...

or a spicy sausage such as

chorizo ''Chorizo'' ( , ; ; see #Names, below) is a type of pork sausage originating from the Iberian Peninsula. It is made in many national and regional varieties in several countries on different continents. Some of these varieties are quite differe ...

merguez Merguez () is a red, spicy lamb- or beef-based fresh sausage in Maghrebi cuisine. In France, merguez became popular in the 1960s and 1970s, as Algerian immigrants and the pieds-noirs of Algeria settled in the country and opened small shops and ...

. Shakshouka is made with eggs, which are commonly poached but can also be scrambled, like in the Turkish ''

''.Joel Lurie Grishaver (2008). ''Artzeinu: An Israel Encounter''.Gil Marks, ''Encyclopedia of Jewish Food'', Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010, , ''s.v.'', p. 547 In

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

, shakshouka is commonly eaten as a side dish, and there are countless variations of it, each with their own unique blend of ingredients. One such variation is hmiss, which is often served alongside traditional kesra bread. Hmiss typically includes grilled peppers, tomatoes, and garlic. In

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

, a similar dish called slata meshouia is enjoyed, but it differs from hmiss with the addition of onions, cumin and tuna. In Morocco, there is a dish referred to as ( "egg and tomato"). In

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, the dish features the typical poached eggs in a spiced

tomato The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible Berry (botany), berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originate ...

-based sauce but with some variations in ingredients. The base consists of sautéed

onions An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classified ...

garlic Garlic (''Allium sativum'') is a species of bulbous flowering plants in the genus '' Allium''. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chives, Welsh onion, and Chinese onion. Garlic is native to central and south Asia, str ...

, and chopped

bell peppers The bell pepper (also known as sweet pepper, paprika, pepper, capsicum or, in some parts of the US midwest, mango) is the fruit of plants in the Grossum Group of the species ''Capsicum annuum''. Cultivars of the plant produce fruits in diff ...

cooked until softened. Chopped tomatoes or tomato paste is then added, along with spices such as

, and

chili powder Chili powder (also spelled chile, chilli, or, alternatively, powdered chili) is the dried, pulverized fruit of one or more varieties of chili pepper, sometimes with the addition of other spices (in which case it is also sometimes known as chili p ...

. Once the sauce thickens, eggs are cracked directly into the mixture and poached until the whites are set but the yolks remain runny. It is garnished with fresh herbs like

parsley Parsley, or garden parsley (''Petroselinum crispum''), is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae that is native to Greece, Morocco and the former Yugoslavia. It has been introduced and naturalisation (biology), naturalized in Eur ...

and

cilantro Coriander (), whose leaves are known as cilantro () in the U.S. and parts of Canada, and dhania in parts of South Asia and Africa, is an annual herb (''Coriandrum sativum'') in the family Apiaceae. Most people perceive the leaves as ha ...

, sometimes also a sprinkle of domiati cheese. The dish is commonly enjoyed with warm

eish baladi Eish baladi () is a traditional Egyptian flatbread and is one of the oldest and most enduring staples in the country’s culinary history. It is renowned for its ubiquity and significance in Culture of Egypt, Egyptian culture. As the most popular ...

, and is a popular choice for breakfast in the country. Some variations of shakshouka can be made with lamb mince, toasted whole spices, yogurt and fresh herbs. Spices can include ground

coriander Coriander (), whose leaves are known as cilantro () in the U.S. and parts of Canada, and dhania in parts of South Asia and Africa, is an annual plant, annual herb (''Coriandrum sativum'') in the family Apiaceae. Most people perceive the ...

caraway Caraway, also known as meridian fennel and Persian cumin (''Carum carvi''), is a biennial plant in the family Apiaceae, native to western Asia, Europe, and North Africa. Etymology The etymology of "caraway" is unclear. Caraway has been ...

and

. Tunisian cooks may add potatoes, broad beans, artichoke hearts or courgettes to the dish. The

North African North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

dish ''

matbukha Matbucha (, ''maṭbūkhah''; ) is a North African condiment or cooked salad consisting of cooked tomatoes and roasted bell peppers seasoned with garlic and chili pepper, and slow-cooked for a number of hours. It is traditionally served in North ...

'' can be used as a base for shakshouka. Because eggs are the main ingredient, it often appears on breakfast menus in English-speaking countries, but in the Arab world as well as Israel, it is also a popular evening meal, and, like

hummus Hummus (, ; , , also spelled hommus or houmous), (full name: Hummus Bi Tahini) is a Levantine cuisine, Levantine Dip (food), dip, spread (food), spread, or savory Dish (food), dish made from cooked, mashed chickpeas blended with tahini, le ...

and

falafel Falafel (; , ) is a deep-fried ball or patty-shaped fritter of Egyptian origin that features in Middle Eastern cuisine, particularly Levantine cuisines. It is made from ground fava beans, chickpeas, or both, and mixed with herbs and spic ...

, is a Levantine regional favorite. On the side, pickled vegetables and North African sausage called

might be served, or simply bread, with mint tea. In Jewish culture, a large batch of tomato stew may be made on Friday for the

Sabbath In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, Ten Commandments, commanded by God to be kept as a Holid ...

dinner and the leftovers used on Sunday morning to make a breakfast shakshouka with eggs. In

Andalusian cuisine Andalusian cuisine is the regional cuisine of Andalusia, Spain. Notable dishes include gazpacho, fried fish (often called ''pescaíto frito'' in the local vernacular), the jamones of Jabugo, Valle de los Pedroches and Trevélez, and the wines ...

, the dish is known as ; this version includes

and

serrano ham Serrano may refer to: People * Serrano people, a Native American tribe of Southern California * Serrano language, the language spoken by the Serrano people * Serrano (surname), people with the surname Serrano Places * Serrano, Lecce, an Italian t ...

. In

Italian cuisine Italian cuisine is a Mediterranean cuisine#CITEREFDavid1988, David 1988, Introduction, pp. 101–103 consisting of the ingredients, recipes, and cooking techniques developed in Italy since Ancient Roman cuisine, Roman times, and later spread ...

, there is a version of this dish called (eggs in purgatory) that adds garlic, basil or parsley.

Notes

References

External links