The green sister to the sardine: a cream sauce full of herbs, made by a sardine cannery from the Vendée.

La Perle des Dieux in Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie on the Vendée coast has been canning fish for 130 years. With La Persillée, "the parsley sauce," they have made a sauce that goes well with their cans: a creamy sauce made from milk and cream with parsley, dill, chervil and tarragon and a splash of lemon. Inside the 130-g jar is a pale green, speckled cream, the portion of which is enough for a can of fish and a few potatoes.

Parsley and dill together make up 14% of the sauce, plus chervil and tarragon, which is why it first tastes of fresh herbs and only then of cream. The lemon keeps it light, while the salt from Guérande remains in the background. It is closer to a sauce verte from bistro cuisine than to a remoulade: no mayonnaise, no vinegar, no sugar.

The base is milk and cream, plus lemon juice, the four herbs, a little flaxseed fiber for thickening, Sel de Guérande and pepper. The sauce is cooked down in the jar and is shelf-stable without refrigeration if unopened.

The manufacturer recommends it with sardines in olive oil and steamed potatoes, and that is exactly its place: cold from the jar with a can of sardines or mackerel, with steamed white fish, with salmon or with shrimp. It also works as a dip for raw vegetables or on a piece of bread under a sardine fillet. Take it out of the refrigerator briefly before serving, then the herbs come through better.