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So, hear me out: the best baked eggs are made without baking. During recipe development, realizing that using a cover produces a humid atmosphere to cook the top of the eggs, delivering a gently cooked soft-cooked egg featuring set whites plus liquid yolk. Direct oven heat of the oven proves harsher versus moist heat, and has a tendency to dry everything out resulting in firm yolks. Here are two sauce options to get started, encouraging customization. The first features an easy coconut turmeric blend, while the merguez ragu reimagines classic tomato-baked eggs, or, to the likes of you and me, eggs baked in spicy tomato sauce.

Golden Coconut Sauce Baked Eggs (shown above)

Prep A quick 10 minutes
Cook 55 minutes
Yields 2

Olive oil
One medium onion, trimmed and minced
Sea salt
2 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
10g fresh ginger, minced ginger
Turmeric powder
½ tbsp cumin seeds
Aromatic leaves
Coconut milk
Canned chickpeas
A few basil leaves, plus extra to serve
4 eggs
Green chilies, thinly cut, for serving

Set a 25cm heavy cast-iron pot on a medium-high heat. Drizzle olive oil, add the chopped onion with some salt, fry until softened. Add the garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin seeds and curry leaves, let them sizzle, occasionally stirring for three to four minutes, add coconut milk including chickpea can contents. Let it bubble, reduce to a simmer, and leave it to tick over for 30-35 minutes, until thick and golden. Adjust seasoning, mix in fresh basil.

Employ a utensil forming small wells within the sauce, then crack an egg into each. Season eggs lightly salted, place a lid on the pan, simmer over low heat briefly, until egg whites firm with yolks still runny. Turn off stove, top with fresh herbs and thinly sliced finger chillies, ready to enjoy.

Spicy Sausage Sauce with Tangy Peppers Baked Eggs

Preparation 10 min
Cook 45 minutes
Serves Two

Olive oil
2 merguez-style lamb sausages
Spicy paste
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
Tomato base
Fine sea salt
4 eggs
1 handful pickled peppers, roughly chopped
Chopped herbs, finely chopped
Greek yogurt
Fresh lemon, wedge-cut, for serving

Use a heavy pan over medium flame. Pour in oil and, once it’s warm, remove the skins from the sausages forming small bits adding to pan, like mini balls. Reduce heat, brown the meat slowly, so it renders out all that spicy, flavour-packed fat. Stir merguez while cooking, for even browning.

After browning, incorporate harissa, cumin, and garlic to the pan, turn up the heat to medium fry with mixing, briefly, when fragrant, and garlic softens. Add tomatoes, season with salt heat to simmer. Turn down the heat to low and leave to blip away about 20 minutes. Sauce will thicken, become richer and darker, while the oils split and rise to the top.

Employ utensil forming wells across base, then crack an egg into each. Sprinkle the top of each egg with a little salt, then cover the pan with a lid. Cook for two to three minutes over a low heat, until the whites are set and yolks warmed.

Remove from heat, garnish with peppers, parsley and yogurt, and oil splash, with lemon on side.