Since I was little, I have thrilled at reading food-related passages in novels. In one passage I read, a dish was described so vividly, I felt compelled to re-create it in my own kitchen. It said: “Ruchama . . . fried onions and sprinkled garlic cloves . . . seasoned it with spicy green pepper and coriander seeds and squeezed a lemon and placed a pile of beet leaves . . . in the middle, and within seconds the green pile sunk into the pot and became an aromatic green sauce, into which Ruchama chopped cubes of sheep’s milk cheese and broke three eggs and dripped olive oil.” As I read and my mouth watered, I realized that Ruchama is essentially making a tomato-free version of the North African poached egg dish, shakshuka. Riffing off the “recipe,” I experimented with a spinach shakshuka and, like Ruchama, ended up mopping it up with pita “with great pleasure.”