Recipe: Aubergine Shakshuka

One of my favourite cuisines has got to be Lebanese food. Every Lebanese dish I've ever eaten has left me delighted, satisfied and wondering when I can go back again to get seconds. I adore everything from falafel to shawarma to tabbouleh and shakshuka and today I'm sharing one of my favourite ways to prepare this delicious aubergine based shaksuka.

Ingredients
olive oil, for frying
2 large aubergines, sliced into rounds
½ red onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
8 large tomatoes on the vine, chopped
125ml tomato juice
½ tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp cumin (optional)
6 large eggs
100g feta cheese, roughly chopped

To serve
a few parsley sprigs and a large mint sprig
warm pitta bread

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/gas mark 7.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan. Season the aubergine slices and fry them in batches for 3–4 minutes on each side, until golden and tender, adding more oil as necessary. Transfer the slices to a plate as they are cooked.

3. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a medium frying pan and sauté the onion gently over a low-to-medium heat for about 8 minutes, stirring every now and then, until softened. Stir in the garlic and cook for a further minute.

4. Tip the tomatoes into the pan along with any juice and stir into the onion. Cook for 8 minutes until the tomatoes have broken down and softened – they should be a pulp. Pour in the tomato juice and cook, again over a low heat, for 5 minutes. The sauce will be quite thick by this stage. Season with salt, black pepper and the cumin, if using. Spread a layer of aubergine slices over a large, ovenproof dish, then spoon over half the tomato sauce. Repeat to make two layers.

5. Make a hole in the sauce with the back of a large spoon and crack an egg into it. Do the same all round the dish until you’ve positioned all the eggs. Scatter over the feta. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes. Pick the leaves off the parsley and mint sprigs, and chop roughly. Scatter over the shakshuka and serve with the warm pitta bread.

TIP: 
You must make the sauce in an ovenproof frying pan, as the eggs are baked right at the end. Just 5 minutes in a hot oven is all it takes for the whites to set and the yolks to still be soft and runny.