Kerkennaise sauce

There are almost countless sauces worldwide. Some sauces even bear the name of the country, island, region or city where they (presumably) originated. For example, there is a Sauce Espagnole ('Spanish sauce') and even a famous Sauce Hollandaise ('Dutch sauce'). Wikipedia, which we now believe to be omniscient, lists a large number of them here . However, one has escaped attention: the Sauce Kerkennaise (or Kerkennah sauce).

The Kerkennaise Sauce is named after the Kerkennah Islands, a group of islands off the east coast of Tunisia. The two largest islands are Chergui (derived from šarqiyy 'eastern') and Gharbi (derived from arabiyy 'Arabic'). The climate is very warm and dry, while a strong hot wind from the direction of the land, called the Gharbi, carries no moisture. The result is a desert-like landscape where little can grow. The population lives mainly from fishing, supplemented by the limited income from tourism.

Shrimp often provide a pleasant get-together for the population of the Kerkennah Islands. A delicious local sauce, the Kerkennaise Sauce, goes with those shrimps. Of course, both the sauce and its recipe are obscure, but that does not mean that this sauce cannot also spice up the taste of a Dutch shrimp.

However, the internet is full of recipes that are far too elaborate and definitely not used on the Kerkennah Islands. Some of these recipes even require you to add a Habanero chili pepper to the sauce. I can reassure the reader: there are no chili peppers on the Kerkennah Islands.

Ingredients
– 7 fresh tomatoes (diced as small as possible)
– 3 tablespoons Tunisian Yakelos extra virgin olive oil
- a clove of garlic (finely chopped)
– a teaspoon of cumin
- Sea salt and pepper to taste

Preparation
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and leave it in the refrigerator for at least an hour to allow the ingredients to work well together. Just before serving, sprinkle some extra virgin olive oil over the sauce for decoration.