Strapatsada Recipe aka Kagianas Recipe: Greek Tomatoes with Eggs
A authentic but simple strapatsada or kagianas recipe.
What is Strapatsada? What is Kagianas?
Strapatsada or kagianas is a dish Greeks make using eggs, usually in summer when tomatoes are in season. It’s eggs scrambled with tomatoes and feta, sometimes with a few variations and added ingredients.
As promised these recipes will all be based on the real thing, simple and effective, with inspiration informed by what you would actually find in Greece – the Souvlakination way. Whenever I think of strapatsada or make it, my mind always goes back to the simplest ones, where you can really taste the tomato. Hence, I always try to make it strapatsada as tasty as possible, without having to add too many ingredients, spices, or pimp it up with loukaniko or similar. It turns out you just need good tomatoes to make something delicious out of nothing more but a few eggs.
How to make strapatsada
Everyone has their own ways of cooking scrambled eggs and, likewise, everyone has slightly different ways of cooking strapatsada. Here I’m striving for the easiest, simplest way possible: just eggs, tomatoes, and feta. Plus extra virgin olive oil, oregano and seasoning.
Usually, you would grate the tomatoes and discard the skin here (or remove the skin and chop), but I sometimes also chop them as they are with the skin on (which is often frowned upon). But I do it anyway to save time, minimise waste and because I personally don’t mind the skin being in there.
Some will add chopped green peppers and start off the recipe with onions. Everyone will cook the eggs to a different consistency too. If you would like to add the green pepper and the onion: finely chop a white onion and green pepper (florina or similar, or a spicy one if you like), start by cooking the onion in the oil and then add the green pepper before adding the tomatoes.
You could also add garlic, smoked ham, loukaniko and herbs and spices of your liking at this stage. But, as explained, I think the beauty of the dish is in its simplicity and flavour in its most basic form. Then you can build outwards if you want to.
Souvlakination’s Strapatsada recipe
Ingredients
For one portion
4 large organic eggs (not free-range; organic is free range anyway, but with better diet and welfare for the chickens)
3 ripe regular organic tomatoes
75g PDO feta cheese
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Oregano
Salt
Method
Grate the tomatoes. To grate them, cut the tomato in half and grate using the coarse side of a grate (the bigger holes) until nothing but the skin and stalk is left in your hands, which you can then discard. (Alternatively, you can blanch the tomatoes, remove the skin and then dice before the next step. If you don’t mind the skin being in there, simply remove the stalk and finely dice instead.)
Place a medium frying pan on a medium heat and heat the extra virgin olive oil.
Add in tomato mixture to the pan. Season with some sea salt and simmer on a medium-high heat, stirring regularly, until most of the liquid has evaporated and the tomato has a slightly thick and smooth, glossy texture. This should take about 15-20 minutes.
Crack the eggs into a bowl, lightly beat with a fork and add to the pan, stirring every few seconds to scramble the eggs.
Once the eggs are a minute away from being cooked to your liking, remove from the heat, crumble in 2/3 (50g) of the feta and stir until the feta is roughly incorporated. I like to cook strapatsada until the eggs are soft, fluffy and not too runny, although others will make the dish runnier. Cook to your liking.
Finish by crumbling the remainder of the feta on top. Drizzle with good extra virgin olive and sprinkle with oregano. Perfect as a meze, breakfast, brunch or lunch alongside some good, crusty bread.
