This sauce is brilliant, packed with flavour and rustic simplicity. As with so many Italian recipes, the ingredients are important and this recipe needs sun ripened tomatoes that are sweet and juicy. From supermarkets, the small plum tomatoes work well as a substitute but are a fiddle to prepare and you may need to use more as a greater part of them will be discarded. There is no shame in using the very best quality tins of cherry tomatoes.

The pasta used is your choice. My lovely Italian guests recommended Fusilli Caserecci but spaghetti works well too.

800g sweet, preferably vine ripened, tomatoes
2 tbsp virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
5-6 basil leaves, torn
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Grated Parmesan cheese for serving

Immerse the tomatoes in boiling water for 30 seconds. Immediately plunge them into cold water. Peel them and cut in half to remove seeds and core (but keep all the discarded bits and put these into a sieve to strain any juice). Finely chop the flesh.

Using a large frying pan, heat the olive oil and garlic until the garlic is soft but not coloured. Add the chopped tomato flesh and stir with a wooden spatula . Sauté for several minutes, stirring from time to time, and then reduce the heat. Add the juice saved from the discarded tomato bits and cook uncovered for about 15 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.

Add the salt and pepper and basil Stir and let simmer for a few more minutes. Put aside (the sauce could be prepared in advance).

Cook the pasta in plenty of salted until the pasta is almost al dente. Strain the pasta keeping back a little of the boiling liquid. Heat the tomato sauce, combine the pasta with the sauce in the saucepan used to cook the pasta and move it around. Add a little of the liquid from cooking the pasta, it the sauce is too thick. This little bit of cooking will bring everything together.

Serve immediately with a small bowl of grated Parmesan cheese to hand.

In Northern Italy, a small white onion is often substituted for the garlic to make a Genoese sauce.