Markets are a hive of activity but there is so much food waste. Box upon box of vegetables and herbs go into landfill. I asked if I could have some of the produce and was told to help myself and so I picked up half a punnet of cherry tomatoes, a damaged garlic bulb, a couple of wrinkled aubergines and a wilted bunch of parsley.

I always have breadcrumbs as I keep the ends and odd pieces of bread, blitz and keep in the freezer until needed. I find a couple of ends of Pecorino which does not have any wax or other additives in its rind and is just the hardened exterior of the cheese so it’s perfectly edible if blitzed in a grinder.

Added to these are store cupboard ingredients, olive oil, a tin of tomatoes, flour, an egg, chilli flakes, herbs from my window ledge, a mozzarella ball lurking in the fridge and I have the ingredients to make the southern Italian dish, Parmigiana.

I'm told this is the correct name for the dish and not ‘Melanzane alla Parmigiana’ (aubergine the Parmesan way) as this would suggest it originates from Parma in the north and is made with Parmesan. Parmigiana is the Italianized name of 'parmiciana' which, in Sicilian, is the lattice planks in the wooden shutters - just as the slices are of aubergine are layered transversely to each other in the dish. If it is Sicilian, there should not be any Parmesan or mozzarella but pecorino, made from sheep's milk. This contrasts the sweet aubergine but I've used mozzarella as well as I like the creamy texture.