Wajos Sugo alle Olive. Tomatoes, 7.5 percent olives, olive oil and garlic, mild and savory – the pasta sauce that gets by with seven ingredients.

Wajos Sugo alle Olive is a pasta sauce made of tomatoes, 7.5 percent olives, olive oil, sugar, salt, garlic and black pepper, 300 g in a jar, from Wajos in Dohr on the Moselle. Not a ketchup-sweet ready-made sauce, no sauce with thickeners or added flavorings, no pesto, but a tomato sauce with olives that you just have to heat up. Vegan.

Sugo alle Olive from Wajos is the sauce whose ingredient list we can read out loud, and everyone nods: tomatoes, olives, olive oil, sugar, salt, garlic, pepper. Seven ingredients, done. That sounds like a matter of course, but for jars from the supermarket shelf, it is the exception – those often list starch, flavorings, and citric acid. Here, the sauce tastes like what is inside: of tomato, which takes the lead role, of olives, which add their tartness, and of olive oil, which rounds everything out. One jar, one pot of pasta, twenty minutes.

Tomato up front, olives tart and salty behind, garlic only in the background

The sugo is red with dark olive pieces, medium-thick, and smells of tomato and olive oil when opened. On the tongue, you first taste the tomato, fruity and slightly sweet, then the olives at 7.5 percent – enough that you have them in every spoonful, tart and salty, just as they should be. Garlic and pepper are subtle; the sugo remains mild. Honestly, the nutritional values are completely normal; diet promises and tricks are absent: 73 kilocalories, 4.8 grams of sugar and 1.1 grams of salt per 100 grams, and sugar is listed as the fourth ingredient because tomatoes need it. It is not suitable for those expecting a fiery sugo – in that case, the Sugo all' Arrabbiata from Wajos with chili is the right choice.

With pasta, on pizza, under fish and with grilled food

The basic method: heat the jar in a saucepan while the pasta is cooking and loosen it with two tablespoons of pasta water. Serve with spaghetti, linguine or penne, with Parmesan or plain – one jar is enough for three to four plates. With a can of tuna and capers, it becomes a puttanesca from your pantry; with sautéed ground meat, a quick Bolognese with an olive note. It works just as well as a pizza sauce on a ready-made crust or as a base for cod, which cooks in the oven in the sauce. Cold, it makes a side for grilled vegetables, steak or halloumi, like a chunky salsa. The sugo is not suitable for anyone who avoids olives – they are in every spoonful.

Our tip: Confetti Linguine with this sugo, topped with Parmesan and a few drops of basil-infused olive oil – our kids' meal that the grown-ups eat, too.

Italian in a jar, listed by a manufactory on the Moselle

Wajos from Dohr near Cochem on the Moselle carries around 900 items – cremas, oils, spices, liqueurs – as well as a small series of Italian sugos. The name behind the brand is Walter Josef Oster from a winemaking family in Ediger-Eller, who have been making wine for 15 generations. His son Peter Oster and Ulf Schwichtenberg built up the brand from the liqueur manufactory of the 1980s starting in the 2000s; today they have over 80 employees, their own laboratory, and stores throughout Germany.

The jar for the pantry, the holiday apartment and aimless evenings

The Sugo alle Olive is for everyone who wants a jar of tomato sauce in the cupboard that actually tastes like something – for families with pasta-loving kids, for weekend homes, and for evenings when the fridge is empty. As a gift, it fits into a package with a bag of pasta and the Sugo ai Pomodori Secchi; all sugos are listed on our Wajos page. Store unopened in a cool, dark place; once opened, keep in the refrigerator and use within a few days. It is not suitable for those looking for a creamy or meat-based sauce – this is tomato and olive, pure.

Tomato, olives, olive oil and garlic, seven ingredients in a jar – the sugo from Wajos that saves our pasta night when we lack a plan.