An Italian chef told me that Italian food is 90% shopping, 10% cooking

It’s beautifully filmed and is so easy to watch. After each episode I want to go round to his house and have him cook for me.

On holiday in Italy recently I read his book “Taste” about his life growing up in upstate New York or more accurately the food he ate while growing up and what his family cooked.

An Italian chef once told me that Italian food is 90 per cent shopping, 10 per cent cooking. If you’ve been to a market in the country you’ll understand that.

There are long queues at stalls because everyone needs to try the tomatoes, feel the aubergines, smell the peaches, taste the olives and cheese.

At this time of year, when the air is slightly warmer, eating Italian is very suitable.

Buy some salami, olives, cheeses, tomatoes, pesto, good olive oil, balsamic and either buy or bake a loaf of bread and that’s all you need.

Buying shoes doesn’t really float my boat but I will spend money on oil and balsamic vinegar.

The difference between a bottle of olive oil from a single estate and the multi country sourced ones that will cost you less than a fiver is marked.

A bottle of aged balsamic vinegar, like the oil, will cost you more but you use less and it’s so worth it.

Sugo is the Italian word for sauce and I’ve been eating one cooked at an Italian deli called Valvona and Crolla in Edinburgh since I was eight (not yesterday).

I’ve always loved the silkiness of their version and a mutual friend let me into the secret – butter and lots of it. You cook a sofrito, of slowly cooked onion, celery, garlic and bay in butter until soft, then add good quality tinned tomatoes (the Mutti brand is the choice of all good nonnas) and cook slowly.

Make a good amount of this and freeze what you don’t need. Pasta Amatriciana, from Amatrice, a mountain town in the Lazio region, is one of the classic pasta dishes. It combines pork in the form of pancetta or guanciale, a pig cheek bacon, chilli, sugo, tomatoes, parmesan and parsley.

Toss the cooked pasta in the sauce and add a little of the cooking liquor to help it emulisify – simple, tasty and the essence of Italia.

Pizza is another food we associate with the country and I’ve included a recipe for a pizza bianco, with a white sauce. Top with what you like but I’ve suggested salami and gorgonzola cheese – vastly better than takeaway, cheaper and you’re in control.

For pudding I couldn’t bypass tiramisu – literally meaning “pick me up”, it has coffee, cream, chocolate, a whisp of lemon and a toot of liqueur – fabulous any time of the year.