The sauce for sardines: tomato, basil and olive oil, 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 L'Ensoleillée, "the Sunny One", they have made a sauce that is perfect for it: a tomato sauce with 10% basil, olive oil, roasted onion and garlic. In the 130-g jar is a thick, red sauce, in which you can see the basil, and the portion is enough for a can of fish and a few slices of bread.

It tastes of ripe tomato, and little else: the basil at 10% is no decorative herb, but contributes to the taste, the roasted onion brings a slight sweetness, the garlic remains in the background. It is less sour and less smooth than a pasta sauce from the supermarket, more like a tomato base from the kitchen of the south, with salt from Guérande instead of industrial salt.

The sauce consists of just over two-thirds tomato puree, plus a share of tomato paste, basil, olive oil, roasted onion, garlic, Sel de Guérande, a little sugar and lemon juice. It is boiled down in the jar and is shelf-stable without refrigeration if unopened.

The manufacturer intended it for his sardines, mackerel, tuna, mussels and squid. The house recommendation: bruschetta with a layer of sauce, on top mackerel fillets and a few olives, briefly in the oven. But it is also great cold as a dip with a can of sardines in olive oil, as a base for a quick pasta or on a piece of toasted bread with a glass of Muscadet.