Moroccan Merguez Ragout with Poached Eggs

By DreiFromBK

By epicureanodyssey, posted about 1 year ago

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion, small dice
• 4 large garlic cloves, peeled and minced
• 1 pound merguez sausage, sliced 1/2-inch thick
• 1 tablespoon ras el hanout, see note above
• 1 teaspoon Spanish sweet smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 15-ounce cans fire-roasted tomatoes, preferably Muir Glen
• 8 extra-large eggs
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped cilantro, stems included
• 2 tablespoons harissa, see note above
• warm crusty bread, for serving

Details

Servings 4
Adapted from food52.com

Preparation

Step 1

We ate this for lunch and agreed it was the perfect meal for the middle of the day -- or the beginning of the day, or the end of the day. The spicy merguez (you can use hot Italian sausage if you can't find merguez or chorizo) is bathed in a lush, smoky sauce of tomatoes, onion, garlic and spices; when you cut into the soft eggs on top, poached right in the sauce, the buttery yolk combines with the rest of the dish and mellows any sharp edges. We found that we didn't need all of the oil, as the sausage gave off a lot of its own fat, so we just spooned off some of the extra oil before poaching the eggs. - A&M

Merguez sausage is a distinctly spiced Moroccan sausage made of lamb that can be found in specialty food markets. If you cannot find merguez in your area, use whatever sausage suits your taste, but I particularly like Spanish chorizo. Harissa is a fiery condiment found on most North African tables and is used to spice up dishes to suit your palate. Ras el Hanout translates to "top of the shop" and refers to the top combination of spices a Moroccan spice vendor can sell. You can find both harissa and ras el hanout at www.gourmetfoodstore.com, or you can make your own. - ecswantner

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until golden. Toss in the garlic and cook another 2 minutes. Add the merguez and sauté until almost cooked through, about 3 minutes.

Lower the heat to medium-low and add the Ras el Hanout, Spanish smoked paprika and salt. Stir to combine and cook for a minute to lightly toast the spices. Add the tomatoes. Turn up the heat to medium and cook until the mixture has thickened slightly, about 5 minutes.

Crack the eggs over the mixture, cover and cook until the whites set, but the yolks are still soft.

Add yours

does anyone have a idea how to make it vegetarian? not a must, but i'd love the option.

Excellent version casa-giardino! I'm simply not buying the Libyan invention version. The tomato traveled from the New World with Colombus. As far as I know he didn't make a detour to Libya. In fact the tomato wasn't even accepted as food in Europe until the late 18th Century. It arrived in Italy from Spain. Naples at the time was controlled by the Bourbon Spanish throne (Kingdom of the Two Sicilies). The tomato industry flourished in the Neapolitan volcanic soil. And yeah, I prefer it for dinner too.

I loved this dish, I used a lower amount of oil. Being lazy and not having ras al hanout, I just looked up a recipe and put a pinch of each spice I had on hand in. But I liked it enough to buy or make up some for future. I used andouille sausage I had on hand. leftover sauce was nice on top of fresh poached eggs.

Smokin'inTokyo, you can send you email address through my web site if you'd like.

Smokin'inTokyo, I'd love to send photos...but need an email address. We lived in Yokohama in '96/'97...LOVED IT!!

Made this for Christmas breakfast...absolutely delicious and easy to put together. I made a batch of TasteFood's Harissa - yum! I will definitely make this again and again. Thanks for a great recipe!

I've just returned from Morocco where I had this dish several times. It's one of my favorites to make for a crowd. I made it for my World Breakfast Supper Club recently. You can prepare the meatballs and ragout ahead of time, then rewarm in a 375-degree oven, crack the eggs on top and bake if doubling or tripling the recipe. Glad you enjoyed it!!

I am new to this site and when I stumbled across this recipe I was excited to make it. It didn't disappoint. Truly delicious and the house smells fabulous too. Thank you! I am looking forward to making it again, soon.

I made quite a similar dish using individual, single-serving cast iron casseroles - one egg per person per casserole. I finished the ragout on top of stove, spooned in the casseroles, cracked the eggs in then put the casseroles, with lids on, in a warn oven for some 10 minutes (but check often to see when it's done to your tastes). Makes for a lovely presentation and, as someone said, makes it easier to scale down the recipe. (also, you can keep the leftover ragout in the fridge/freezer, and eat it with a freshly poached egg every time :)
Very nice idea to use a spicy sausage and thanks for the merguez recipe!

Made it for dinner a few nights ago, using bulk merguez which worked fine. it was good, but i didn't love it. i think, perhaps, i'm not that big a fan of this flavor profile. it did make a nice dinner w/the runny eggs and crusty bread, but wasn't a favorite.

I fell in love with the recipe the first time I read it and I knew I had to make it right away. I bought Merguez at Uli's and spices from Pike place market here in seattle. This recipe is quick, easy and delicious. Also a real crowd pleaser. Recipe can be scaled up pretty easily if eggs are poached separately and then served over the ragout. Served this with baguette and white wine with Looza Apricot nectar.

I made this wonderful recipe this week and it was a big hit at my house. The great thing for me, besides the wonderful blend of flavors, was that I put it together in about 30 minutes! Amazingly, I found a small box of Ras el Hanout at a local Whole Foods, and it's now my fnew avorite spice blend. The eggs cooked a little faster than I thought they would and I'll check in on them a little earlier next time, but this was perfect with the recipe for the merguez meatballs recipe ecswantner posts below. The flavors are perfect with the lamb for this recipe. Thanks so much for posting!

Thanks for the scrumptious comments!!

Merguez is really easy to make. If have a few minutes, mix together 1 pound ground lamb with 1/4 cup finely minced cilantro stems, 1 1/2 TBS ras el hanout, 2 minced garlic cloves, 1 TBS harissa, 1 TBS extra virgin olive oil and kosher salt to taste. Roll into sausage-like cylinders, store in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use. VOILA, Merguez.

A really fine commercial blend of ras el hanout and smoked paprika can be ordered at wholespice.com