Baked Feta with Olives, Tomatoes, and Eggs

Author Notes

This is not a post about blood oranges. And no meyer lemon was harmed in the making of this dish. No bee pollen was purchased, no bizarr-o flour was milled, and no oak-tarnished wooden knives were wielded. This is a recipe for da people! Made with all that normal crap in your fridge and cooked in a regular, run-of-the-mill oven in a pretty averagely-appointed kitchen.

Maybe it’s the recession’s fault, or YouTube’s, or maybe I’m just getting older and this is the natural course of life, but things are getting really … simple. I mean, identity is still a toughie. But, it just costs so much to be plain these days! Food magazines charge $18 for images of a single pine cone, or a bundle of dirty carrots on a picnic bench, or just a bird, sitting there, not even flapping. The trendiest restaurants offer five items. Girls I know upcycle their grandparents’ sweaters, … “upcycle” became a word…and did you know there’s a store in the Outer Sunset that sells six oz, handleless, plain white mugs for $30?

And then there are some simple things that became really complicated: cleaning up your own mess – lots ‘o countries just can’t get this right; putting things back where you found them – husbands and sons everywhere, struggling with this one for eternity. Buying yogurt from the store – really? You’re going to actually make yogurt? It doesn’t…just…come like that? Bottled vinegar – I don’t want to make anything in my kitchen from scratch that requires a “mother,” unless it’s a human baby. Sometimes I just want to see recipe instructions that are under 15 words: add all the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir. Bake at 375 F. I wish that worked for everything.

So, look. This recipe is simple. Don’t complicate it. Make the dish and then dip some bread in it. Enjoy!

This recipe is adapted from Drizzle and Dip. It's my riff on her baked feta dish to make it a little more like the famous Shakshuka breakfast I grew to love while living in Jerusalem. Super grateful that I found her version for inspiration! —Lauren Wilner