Rice simmered in tomato, smoked sausage, and bacon until it stains deep red — Savannah's signature one-pot and the Georgia-coast cousin of jollof and Charleston red rice.
Savannah red rice is Black Savannah's dish — served at church, at funerals, at Sunday tables across the Georgia coast. It is jollof that came through the port and stayed, carried by the same Rice Coast people who built the Lowcountry rice economy.
The red comes from tomato, which carries lycopene — a carotenoid antioxidant linked to heart and prostate health, and one that becomes more bioavailable when cooked in fat, exactly as it is here. The trade-off is a white-rice base cooked with sausage and bacon, so it runs high in sodium and saturated fat and spikes blood sugar. Rehabilitate it on parboiled or Carolina red rice, cut the smoked sausage with smoked turkey, lean hard on the tomato, and the dish keeps its soul while losing its worst numbers. Cook-and-cool the rice for resistant starch. Keep the portion to a cupped handful and serve greens alongside.
Render bacon and brown sliced smoked sausage, build the trinity in the fat, add plenty of tomato (paste plus crushed) and a little stock, then stir in rice and bake or steam covered low until the grains drink up the red and turn tender and separate. The dish should be moist and distinctly red, never mushy. Baking in a covered dish gives the most even result.
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