National Dish Mauritius: Zevi de Pomme d'Amour (Recipe)
In this article
Zevi de Pomme d’Amour is the tomato rougaille that underpins Mauritian Creole cooking. Pomme d’amour — love apple — is the Creole word for tomato, and here it cooks down with ginger, garlic, thyme and chilli into a thick, fragrant sauce. Everything else on the island gets served with it: fish, sausages, eggs, or just rice.
About Zevi de Pomme d’Amour
Zevi de Pomme d’Amour is the savoury tomato rougaille of Mauritian Creole cooking. Pomme d’amour, literally “love apple”, is the Creole name for the tomato, which here is cooked down with ginger, garlic, thyme and chilli into a well-seasoned, thick sauce. Traditionally served with rice, this dish is the heart of countless Mauritian family kitchens and the base from which dozens of other dishes are built.
Ingredients (serves 1–2)
- 400 g ripe tomatoes, diced (or passata)
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
- 1–2 red chillies, finely chopped, to taste
- 2–3 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Fresh coriander, to garnish
Shopping for the ingredients
Ripe, flavourful tomatoes make the difference, out of season, good tinned tomatoes beat pale fresh ones. Fresh thyme is essential and dried is a poor substitute here. Mauritian cooking uses small hot chillies; adjust to your own tolerance, but some heat is expected.
Preparing the dish
Dice the tomatoes and chop the aromatics. That is all the preparation there is. The technique is entirely in the cooking down: the sauce needs twenty minutes of gentle simmering to lose its rawness and thicken properly.
Step-by-step instructions
- Heat the oil and soften the onion for 6–8 minutes until golden.
- Add the garlic, ginger and chilli and fry for 1 minute.
- Add the diced tomatoes and the thyme sprigs.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Simmer over a medium-low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Crush the tomatoes against the side of the pan as they soften.
- Cook until thick and the oil begins to separate at the edges.
- Remove the thyme stalks, scatter with coriander and serve with rice.
Gluten-free / lactose-free version
The rougaille is naturally gluten-free and lactose-free, vegetables, oil and herbs. Served with rice, the whole meal remains suitable without any adaptation.
Tips for vegans and vegetarians
Zevi de Pomme d’Amour is vegan as written and is eaten that way as often as not. Add butter beans, lentils or fried aubergine and it becomes a substantial plant-based main course.
More tips and tricks
Cook it until the oil separates out at the edges. That is the sign the sauce is properly done, and stopping earlier leaves it watery and raw-tasting. Use fresh thyme. And do not skip the ginger; it is what distinguishes a Mauritian rougaille from any other tomato sauce.
Adapting the recipe to your taste
Curry leaves or a little curry powder push it towards the Indo-Mauritian style. Smoked fish, sausages or hard-boiled eggs added at the end make it a main course. Spring onion scattered over is traditional.
Ingredient substitutions
Tinned tomatoes work perfectly well out of season. Shallots substitute for the onion. Bird’s eye chillies are closest to the Mauritian variety.
Drink pairing ideas
Cold Phoenix beer is the local pairing. A crisp rosé suits it at a meal. Alouda, the milky basil-seed drink, is the traditional Mauritian non-alcoholic choice.
Serving and presentation ideas
Serve rougaille over plain white rice, with a bowl of chilli paste and perhaps a chatini, a fresh chutney, on the side. It is family food, brought to the table in the pot, and everyone helps themselves.
A bit of history
Rougaille is the foundation of Mauritian Creole cooking, a Franco-African tomato base that absorbed Indian spicing after indentured labourers arrived in the nineteenth century. The result is genuinely Mauritian, recognisable neither as French, African nor Indian, but built from all three. It offers a genuine window onto Mauritian cuisine.
More recipe ideas
Summary: Zevi de Pomme d’Amour
Zevi de Pomme d’Amour is tomatoes cooked down with ginger, garlic, thyme and chilli into Mauritius’s foundational sauce. Cook it until the oil separates, and serve it over rice.
