Rougail saucisse — France

Rougail saucisse simmers smoked pork sausages in a thick tomato sauce built up with onion, garlic, ginger and chili. On Réunion Island, 'rougail' names a whole family of cooked sauces served alongside rice, and the sausage version is one of the most common everyday meals in Creole households. The dish is reported across Réunion and travels with the island's diaspora to mainland France and beyond, where it is cooked as a marker of Réunion Creole cuisine. It is ordinary weekday food as much as it is served at larger family tables, usually alongside plain white rice and a pot of lentils or beans. To prepare it, the sausages are first parboiled to remove excess fat and smoke, then browned. A separate pan holds the sauce: onion, garlic and ginger softened in oil, then chopped tomato, chili and thyme added and cooked down until thick. The browned sausages are returned to the pan and simmered in the sauce until it coats them, then the whole dish is spooned over rice with the lentils or beans on the side. Households vary the heat of the chili, the smokiness of the sausage and how thick the sauce is reduced; some add bay leaf, turmeric or a dash of vinegar. These choices sit side by side as different ways of making the same family of dish rather than as corrections to one another.