If you can’t find good ripe tomatoes for pasta sauce, buy a good Italian brand of plain canned tomatoes. Tomatoes are usually canned when at their very best, very ripe and full of flavours.
Buy dry spices whole and keep them in a dry and cool place – they’ll keep for years. Before using, roast them in a dry pan to release the flavours, then grind them down with a mortar and pestle. 
Use fresh rather than dry herbs, but remember their flavours are very delicate and subtle. Most herbs will lose their aroma if cooked too long, so add your herbs at the end of the cooking. Some sturdier herbs such as rosemary, thyme, oregano and bay leaf can be cooked longer without losing their flavours.
To keep green vegetables bright green after cooking, blanch them in hot salted water for a few minutes. Immediately plunge them into a bowl of iced water to stop the cooking process and to fix the chlorophyll. Overcooked vegetables lose their crunch and most of their vitamins.
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