i love spending weekends poring over complicated recipes and learning new techniques, but sometimes (most times), i crave something simple. that’s especially true for chilly friday nights, when i’m tired from the workweek, feeling lazy and just wanting to go out to dinner, but having an internal struggle because i also want to put on sweatpants at 6pm and not get up from my spot on the couch all night.

enter: shakshuka. it’s the perfect antidote to both cold weather and laziness – it’s warm, incredibly simple to make (with ingredients you likely already have most of), and equally important – it tastes wonderful. there are tons of variations of this – you can leave out the greens, add parsley for garnish, top with any number of cheeses, or use no cheese at all, and use any of your favorite spices – but the basic premise is eggs poached in tomato sauce. that’s it. easy peasy.

the tomato sauce is really the star of the show here, so you’ll want to get something good. now’s the time to splurge on that $2.99 can that you may not have seen before because it’s not at eye-level like the 80 cent one. get some good tomatoes, something made with san marzanos if you can. oh, and bread: you’ll want lots of that too. shakshuka is your excuse to a) not use silverware and b) eat an entire baguette because you have to because it’s your utensil. so go ahead, get a bigger baguette than you normally would and slice it up, butter it, and broil the whole damn thing. you’re welcome.

my version that follows has you add some swiss chard toward the end and is topped with feta, but i encourage you to play around with it and make it your own. you can’t go wrong. simple flavors for the win.