School is about to start, and children everywhere are going to be asked to speak or write about what they did on their holidays. Why should I be any exception?

The difference is that I'm not going to go on at length about what I did, but what I learned.

I spent the first couple of weeks of July in Italy. Aside from negotiating the minefield of gastronomical etiquette which leaves many a foreigner in a state of befuddled inadequacy (antipasti, primo piatto, sigundo piatto...) I was lucky enough to stay with friends, one of whom turned out to be an Italian chef.

As well as working in his own restaurant, the chef would make the family midday meal at home most days. I observed and took copious mental notes.

Home-made tomato sauce:
My method was always to make a 'sofrito' type base of onions and garlic sauteed in olive oil, and then to add the skinned tomatoes, herbs and seasoning. The chef's method was easier, healthier and much tastier. He simply blended skinned tomatoes and garlic, and cooked them for however long it takes, and once it was ready, poured in some olive oil. In this way you get the benefits of raw olive oil, which loses its nutritional properties if you cook it. Then you add salt and fresh/dried herbs like basil or oregano. It is always good to add some sugar or tomato ketchup to the sauce to offset the acidity of the tomatoes, by the way.

Another tip from my sister (who is neither Italian or a chef) is that ground black pepper added when cooking can go bitter, at least in tomato sauce and other tomato-based dishes like gazpacho. For this reason it is best to leave it up to each person to add pepper to taste.

Using the tomato sauce, the chef also showed us how to make a stunningly simple Aubergine (Eggplant) Parmigiana - and he 'fried' the aubergines without a single drop of oil.