This is my all time favourite summer comfort food.

This sauce epitomises Italian cooking. It is so simple but all the ingredients must be of the best quality, used generously and cooked with feeling.

Take about 20 ripe tomatoes. Cut off the tops where the stems had been and place the tomatoes flat side down in a large frying pan with a lid. Cook the tomatoes gently with a tablespoon of olive oil until they squash down and the skins can be lifted off. Using a fork, squash them down further, taking away any centres that will not break down.

Add two crushed cloves of garlic, salt and pepper to taste and continue to cook the tomatoes – taking the lid on and off as you judge cooking time against thickness of the sauce. In the last minutes of cooking, add finely torn basil leaves.

Cook the spaghetti in a large saucepan with lots of salted water. When ready, lightly drain the spaghetti and mix with the sauce before serving with a bowl of grated Parmesan on the table.

A variation on this sauce is to use oregano in place of basil and add a few tablespoons of Marscapone to the sauce.