Garlic Prawn & Tomato Baked Eggs

Ingredients

• 300 g raw king prawns, peeled and deveined
• 4 eggs
• 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 red chilli, finely sliced
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 0.5 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 15g flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• salt and black pepper
• crusty sourdough bread, to serve

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large ovenproof frying pan over medium heat. Pat the prawns dry on kitchen paper while the oil warms — water means steam, and steam means rubbery prawns later.
2. Add the sliced garlic and chilli and cook gently for 30 seconds, just until fragrant and pale gold. Don't let it brown — burnt garlic turns the whole pan bitter and you can't claw it back.
3. Stir in the smoked paprika and oregano and bloom them in the oil for 30–60 seconds, until the spices smell toasty and the oil stains red. Raw paprika tastes dusty; bloomed paprika tastes of itself.
4. Pour in the chopped tomatoes along with a splash of water to loosen — the liquid breaks the tomatoes down so they taste of summer fruit, not tin. Season generously with salt and pepper and simmer for 8 minutes, stirring now and then, until the sauce has thickened and deepened to a rich brick red.
5. Taste the sauce and adjust the salt now — at the end, not at the table. It should taste bright and a little punchy, because the eggs will soften everything.
6. Season the prawns with a pinch of salt, then nestle them into the sauce in a single layer, pushing them in slightly so they're half-submerged. Cook for 2 minutes, until they're just starting to turn pink at the edges — they'll finish under the lid with the eggs.
7. Make four wells in the sauce with the back of a spoon and crack an egg into each. Season the eggs with a pinch of salt and pepper.
8. Cover the pan with a lid or a tight sheet of foil and cook over medium-low heat for 5–6 minutes, until the whites are set but the yolks still wobble when you nudge the pan. Pull it off the heat the moment the whites turn opaque — carryover will firm them up further.
9. Scatter over the chopped parsley, tear the crusty bread into the middle of the table, and bring the pan straight over for scooping yolks and sauce together.