Eggs with tomatoes, red peppers & bacon
on Apr 08, 2014, Updated Jul 30, 2019
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What are your feelings about cookbooks, if any? Do you own any? And if so, just a few, or truckloads? Do you leaf through them and drool over the pictures a few times then shove them on a shelf where they remain for years gathering dust? Or are your favourite ones used so often that the pages are crumpled, stiff with water stains and splattered with salad dressing and cake batter?
Me? Easy. Buy me a cookbook for Christmas and I’m one HAPPY girl (see my Amazon wishlist, family and friends! Ha! Only (half) kidding!) Once lunch and the Queen’s speech are over on Christmas Day, you may just find me curled up on the sofa anti-socially for the rest of the afternoon leafing through the pages of my latest acquisition. And the heavier and thicker the book is, and the nicer the cover, the better!
But thanks to the somewhat ‘always-sort-of-on-the-move’ lifestyle I’ve led over the past decade or so, actually I have ended up owning surprisingly few cookbooks. I have my well-worn ever-faithful Jamie Oliver , Nigel Slater and Nigella Lawson tomes and a few others, but not nearly as many as I would have if I had free rein (aka suitcase space) to raid my favourite bookshops’ cooking sections whenever I liked. But this is about to change. Once we’re settled in the UK, expect to find me on the sofa in my pyjamas at 2pm buried under a big pile of cookbooks! Don’t say I didn’t warn you, Mr. Scrummy!
So don’t laugh, but one of my favourite cookbooks is one that I don’t actually own yet! I know what you’re thinking: ‘Aha! She just scours the Internet for recipes from well-known cookbooks instead of buying them. Cheap-skate!’ Ahem. Well, I may have done this once or twice. Or three times. But honestly honestly, as soon as I get that permanent bookshelf space in this as-yet-non-existent new house or flat of ours in the UK, I will be a cheap-skate-cookbook-recipe-Internet-scourer no more! I’m getting those lovelies ordered by first-class post!
So this ‘much-loved’ book of mine that I haven’t even read yet is Yotam Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem: A Cookbook. I know, how ridiculous that I am saying this. But in my defense, I have stroked the front cover and furtively leafed through display copies several times while lurking for far too long in bookshops, as well as ooh-ed and ah-ed over a few of the recipes published in newspaper food sections or adapted on other blogs. Just take a look at the recipes here, for instance. Drool drool! So how can you think that it’s at all premature of me to declare this book a favourite?
So this eggs in tomatoes, red peppers and bacon sauce is inspired by a recipe in this very book for shakshuka, which if you didn’t know is a popular breakfast dish in both North Africa (where it is believed to have originated) and in Yotam’s homeland, Israel. I certainly wouldn’t call my version shakshuka, especially with the addition of the bacon, and in fact if you preferred it to be like a more traditional shakshuka you could easily leave out the bacon and add some spicy heat instead! But what I found so inspiring and worthy of copying from his recipe was the suggestion to pan-roast the cumin first to bring out its flavour and then add more olive oil than you would think sensible to the pan and stir it around to let it infuse into the oil really well. Simple and yet genius!
As is usual for the recipes on this here little corner of the Internet, putting this together for a lazy weekend breakfast is easy-peasy. And yes, if you were wondering, I did mean to post this in time for this last weekend but had a little ‘mishap’ related to emailing myself the post from the computer that I wrote it on. As in, I forgot to. I nearly posted something else today as a result, but … nah! You can plan to make this next weekend instead. Never mind at all that it’s only Tuesday because, let’s face it, it’s always good to be well prepared for the weekend!
Anyway, back on track … after doing ‘the cumin thing’ as described above, you simply add the onions, bacon, peppers, herbs and paprika to the pan before adding a tin of tomatoes and a little brown sugar and letting everything simmer gently for about 20 minutes. Finally, you crack in four to six eggs depending on how many you’d like to feed, or how greedy you’d like to be, cover the pan and let the eggs cook for about ten minutes for runny eggs, slightly longer if you like them not-so-runny. Finito!
I’ll leave you with the recipe below, and with an important question. Anyone got any more favourite cookbook suggestions for me? All recommendations gratefully considered!
Eggs with tomatoes, red peppers & bacon
Ingredients
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1.5-3.5 ounces bacon or pancetta, chopped
- 1 onion
- 1/3 cup olive oil, plus a little more for drizzling
- 2 red peppers, or 1 red & 1 green or yellow
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley plus another for sprinking at the end
- 14 ounces can of tomatoes, (1 can)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4-6 eggs
Instructions
- In a large skillet/frying pan (choose one that has a lid), dry-roast the cumin for a couple of minutes to bring out the flavour.
- Add the oil and bacon and fry for a few more minutes.
- Add the onion and cook for yet another couple of minutes, then add the peppers, paprika, bay leaves, parsley & sugar and cook for a little longer to bring out the colour.
- Now add the tin of tomatoes, then half-fill the empty can with water, swirl it around and add the water to the pan as well. Bring the mixture to a boil, then lower the heat and let it all simmer for about 20 minutes. Add a little more water if it starts to get too dry (the consistency should match that of a pasta sauce).
- Add a little salt and pepper to taste, then crack 4 to 6 eggs into the pan. Put the pan lid on and cook until the eggs are set to your liking (about 10 to 12 minutes – I cooked mine for about 12 minutes and I would have liked them a little runnier!)
- Drizzle a little more olive oil over, sprinkle with the reserved fresh parsley and serve immediately, with pitta/flat bread (or any other kind of bread) if you like.
Notes
Nutrition
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Hi Helen, I am a cookbook junkie, I buy them on-line and at thrift stores and borrow them from the library. I can’t help myself, after I’ve used them a few times I put them on the “shelf” and just admire them. Though Jerusalem is one that I do use over and over. Love this recipe and your pics, they are gorgeous. Good luck with all your new adventures!
Aw, thank you, Cheri, that is such a sweet comment! I really need some good luck at the moment – it’s certainly pretty hectic trying to move countries in the short space of time we have to do it.
As for my cookbooks, I do exactly what you said with some of them – just admire them! My very favourite ‘just for admiring’ book is an absolutely beautiful one called Secrets of the Red Lantern by Pauline Nguyen. It’s all about Pauline’s family’s move to Australia from Vietnam and the Vietnamese restaurant they set up there. It’s got recipes and stories and it’s just gorgeous – highly recommended!
Love veggies with eggs, this looks wonderful!!
I want the Jerusalem: A Cookbook, too! It’s been on my Amazon list forever, I need to just suck it up and buy it!
Beautiful posts and pictures!
Thanks so much, Kaylee! Everyone seems to be confirming my suspicions about Jerusalem – I gotta buy it!!
I really should get more cookbooks. But I seem to drift more towards internet based recipes. This meal sounds fantastic! Love having eggs at dinner time : )
I don’t think you should get more cookbooks, Natalie. Whatever works for you best is cool! Glad you like this dish … I ate it for brunch but you’re right, it would be great for dinner, too!
Greeting via Blahnik Baker – Ottolenghi is my fav chef and I spend hours pouring through his books (I have all of them). You are making me hunghry.
Hi, Bintu! Thanks so much for passing by. We Brit bloggers need to stick together! 😉 I will look forward to having a look over at your blog a little later. I’m glad I could make you hungry with this. You are making me envious of all those books of Ottolenghi’s that you have. But soon, very soon, I will have them, too!
Oh, Helen! I love EVERYTHING about this post! The gorgeous photos, the delicious recipe (absolutely my kind of food, any time of day … pinning for sure!), and your description of your passion for cookbooks! I’m a total cookbook fiend, too. My mom and dad own a second-hand bookstore and keep me well-supplied with far more than I can ever possibly keep. And just like you, some of my very favorite Christmas gifts are cookbooks! My parents always carefully select a giant bag of wonderful books for me – going through them after all the Christmas festivities have quieted down is one of my happiest moments of the season! My nightstand is generally overflowing with all the books I just can’t wait to read next! I don’t actually cook from them much, since I’m always trying to come up with my own creations for my blog … but I still LOOOOVE them! 😀 I guess we’re kindred spirits, for sure!
Aw, you’ve made my day with this comment, Shelley. Thank you so much for all the lovely compliments on the post! It seems we are kindred spirits indeed in the cookbook-lovers department! That’s so amazing that your parents have a bookshop. I think I would spend every day there just hanging out in the cookery section!
Looks like a hearty delicious breakfast. I’m sure this would fill me up real nice!
Have a beautiful Tuesday!
Yes, what a shame most of us don’t have time to make something like this midweek! I hope you have a great Tuesday too, Melanie!
I have a fast growing collection of cookbooks but I’m a bit of a cheapskate as I tend to pick them up from charity shops and jumble sales mostly. Unless there is a specific one I really want, that is! Jerusalem is one of my favourites 🙂 If I was to recommend another one off the top of my head… it would be Polpo by Russell Norman. Anyway, this looks divine! I would love some of this right now with a slice of crusty bread… mmmm
Thanks for the recommendation, Aimee! I’ll pop that one on my wishlist then, too! Nothing wrong with picking up books from charity shops/jumble sales etc. That’s definitely something I miss while over here in Greece.
I am trying to get back into using the cookbooks that I own – with the Internet at my fingertips I most often find my recipes and inspiration online, but I do have a great cookbook selection that I must make use of! What a lovely dish!
Thank you for saying so, Amanda! I use the Internet a lot as well for inspiration – don’t we all! – but for me nothing beats leafing through those lovely big glossy photos in the cookbooks!
J’adore ce type de plat! Il me fait penser à la méditerranée, donc à mon pays, l’Espagne! J’aime beaucoup Otholengui et quand je suis aller à Londres, j’ai manger dans son “take away”. Très bon!
Je savais pas que tu etais de l’Espagne, Eva! J’adore l’espagne. J’y ai passe trois mois (a Grenada – tres belle!) pendant mes etudes (il ya beaucoup d’ans maintenant!) Je suis tres heureuse que tu aimes ce plat et … je savais pas aussi qu’Ottolenghi a un take-away! Ca doit etre tres bon!
My guilty pleasure is eating lunch while reading a cookbook. Reading – as in, I love the bits before the recipe where the author explains all about what inspired them to create the dish. Oh so indulgent.
This looks fab, by the way – you can always count on Ottolenghi for a good recipe. Funnily enough, ‘Jerusalem’ is the only one of his books that I don’t have…
By the way, are you coming to the FBC conference in June? I think that he is one of the speakers.
One of the best cookbooks for the ‘bits before the recipe’ is Nigel Slater’s kitchen diaries, Skye. Nigella is good at that, too. I love the way she writes! I actually had never heard of this conference until you mentioned it. I just checked out the website and it looks fantastic – I’d love to hear Ottolenghi speak! – but I suspect that I won’t make it this year as we’ll have just got back to the UK from Greece and things are bound to be a bit hectic. Thanks so much for letting me know about it, though. It’s going to feel like such a novelty to be able to go to these sorts of things, which certainly don’t happen (yet?) over here in Greece!