Shashukah...Lichiam!

Shashukah!

This roughly translates to "Eggs Poached in Tomato Sauce." This is an Israeli dish kids used to bring to potluck when I was in school, but after a little bit of research (aka typing it into Google) I have learned that nearly all nationalities have their own version of this, which is so good to know b/c any endless possibilities exist for this really easy, bread holding dish. Enjoy!
*This is adapted from the Smitten Kitchen blog and a sheet of paper found in my mother's recipe box, so who knows where it really came from.


Ingredients:
- sick amount of olive oil
- 2 small onions
- 3 fresh chiles (halved and seeded, but if you like it really hot leave in the seeds or use some adobe chiles from the can)
- 6 cloves of garlic, crushed and sliced
- 1 Tablespoon of paprika (smoked is better)
- 1 tsp. of cumin
- 2-4 leaves of sage
-1 pat of butter
- 1 Tablespoon red pepper flakes
- 4 eggs
- 1 can of crushed tomatoes (or do it yourself with whole tomatoes as if you are making tomato sauce)
- salt and pepper to taste
- crumbled feta
- warm, crusty bread

Directions:

Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add chiles and onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown, about 6 minutes. Add garlic, cumin, and paprika, and cook, stirring frequently, until garlic is soft, about 2 more minutes. In another pan brown a pat of butter and cook sage leaves in it until they get brown and you begin to smell them, about 2-3 mins. Set aside.

Put tomatoes and their liquid into a medium bowl and crush with your hands. Add crushed tomatoes and their liquid to skillet along with 1/2 cup water, reduce heat to medium, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly, about 15 minutes. Season sauce with salt.

Crack eggs over sauce so that eggs are evenly distributed across sauce’s surface. Cover skillet and cook until yolks are just set, about 5 minutes. Using a spoon, baste the whites of the eggs with tomato mixture, being careful not to disturb the yolk. Sprinkle with feta. Cut up the sage leaves and sprinkle on top (some people use flat leaf parsley, but parsley makes me gag) and serve with warm crusty bread

*When I made this recently I forwent the feta and instead spread goat cheese on bread for dipping and that was even better, so choose your cheese option to taste.