What’s great about this recipe for beginner cooks is that once you’ve done it a few times you can add other simple ingredients to your basic tomato sauce to completely transform it. Check out the end of the recipe, where I’ve given you some ideas to get you started.

serves 4 to 6

Ingredients

• • 2 cloves of garlic
• • 1 fresh red chilli
• • a bunch of fresh basil
• • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• • 400g dried spaghetti
• • olive oil
• • 1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• • 100g Parmesan cheese

To prepare your pasta

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• Peel and finely slice the garlic
• Finely slice your chilli (halve and deseed it first if you don’t want the sauce too hot)
• Pick the basil leaves off the stalks, put to one side and finely chop the stalks

To cook your pasta

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• Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, add the spaghetti and cook according to the packet instructions
• Meanwhile, put another large pan on a medium heat and add 2 good lugs of olive oil
• Add the garlic, chilli and basil stalks and give them a stir

To cook your pasta

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• When the garlic begins to brown slightly, add most of the basil leaves and the tinned tomatoes
• Turn the heat up high and stir for a minute
• Season with salt and pepper

To cook your pasta

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• Drain the spaghetti in a colander, then transfer it to the pan of sauce and stir well
• Taste and add more salt and pepper if you think it needs it

To serve your pasta

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• Divide the pasta between your bowls, or put it on the table in a large serving dish and let everyone help themselves
• Roughly tear over the remaining basil leaves and grate over some Parmesan

These can be added to your tomato sauce when it’s finished. Just stir in and warm through:

• Add a handful of baby spinach to the sauce at the same time as you add the cooked pasta – when the leaves have wilted remove from the heat and serve with some crumbled goat’s cheese on top
• A few handfuls of cooked prawns and a handful of chopped rocket, with the juice of ½ a lemon
• A tin of tuna, drained and flaked into the sauce with ½ a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, some black olives and the juice of ½ a lemon
• A handful of fresh or frozen peas and broad beans