Rougaille starts with onions and garlic fried in oil until soft and golden. Then ginger, chilli, and fresh tomatoes go in and everything cooks together until the tomatoes melt into a thick, dark sauce. The smell of a rougaille cooking is one of the most recognisable smells in a Mauritian kitchen.
The name 'rougaille' comes from a French Creole word. Mauritius was once a French colony, then a British one, and people from Africa, India, China, France and many other places all arrived and brought their cooking with them. Rougaille is a perfect example of Mauritian fusion - a sauce that blends influences from many places into something unique.
You can eat rougaille with rice and lentils (a very popular combination), inside a dholl puri wrap, or simply with bread. In many Mauritian homes it is made several times a week. It is simple, affordable, filling and full of flavour - the kind of food that feeds a whole family from a small pan.