Paul Collins says that children love making colourful food, and nothing could be more colourful than tomato sauce. Although this sauce can be created from chopped tinned tomatoes, he encourages children to use fresh ingredients and, where possible, pick their own from the garden, as he feels it is very important for them to have an understanding of exactly where our ingredients come from.

YOU WILL NEED One medium-sized onion One clove garlic 4 tbspns olive oil 250g fresh ripe tomatoes or tin of organic tinned tomatoes 1 tbspn tomato purée Handful fresh herbs that can include oregano, basil or marjoram Salt and freshly-ground black peppercorns to season METHOD Peel and chop the onion really fine.

Chop the garlic fine or squeeze it through a garlic press.

Pour the olive oil into a frying pan, bring to a medium heat and toss in the onion.

When the onion is soft and almost cooked, toss in the garlic, stir and allow the mix to cook until you can smell the fragrant aroma of the cooked garlic.

Stir in the tomato purée, chopped herbs and the tomatoes (diced small).

Continue to cook over a moderate heat until the sauce begins to thicken.

Remove from the heat, taste and add a pinch of salt and a small quantity of ground black peppercorns, stir and taste again, adding a little more seasoning if needed. (It is good to let the children decide if it needs more salt and pepper).

Allow the sauce to cool until safe enough to spoon into a liquidiser — zap for a few moments on full speed until it has formed a smooth purée.

The sauce is now ready to spread on pizza dough.

Note: Paul advises that an adult is in attendance while the children are chopping the onion, garlic, herbs and tomatoes, to avoid an accident with a sharp knife.