More notes from my hard-knock life

What I learned about Italian food from staying in the villa on the pasta packet, plus a hot-weather recipe for fresh tomato sauce and this week’s market haul.

Years ago, back when I was the food editor of Red magazine, I used to go on lots of press trips. I’ve flown in a helicopter over Roger Federer’s estate in South Africa (I don’t remember, something about oyster beds I think), ridden for what felt like days across Belgium in a bus to peer into vats of soy sauce, risen at dawn to walk through chestnut wood…