Boil the spaghetti as usual.

In the meanwhile, prepare the sauce.

Heat 1 coffee-cupful of oil in a pan and sauté the cabbage until it shrivels. Add the walnuts and lower the heat.

Melt the sugar in a small saucepan until it has caramelized. Add the vinegar and heat to obtain a delicious vinegar syrup. Pour this syrup into the cabbage and walnut mixture, stir well and boil for a few minutes. Add a drop of water if required.

Drain the spaghetti and scald with the rest of the olive oil. Add about ⅔ of the sauce and mix well. Then serve and top each helping with a little extra sauce.

What do you think of it? Strange? And yet imagine the taste. The full flavour of spaghetti together with the sautéed cabbage and walnuts, and the sweet-‘n-sour tang of the vinegar syrup all blend superbly, far beyond the realms of the conventional.

And what’s more, if you’d used Italian radiccio (after all that’s a red cabbage too, only smaller), instead of red cabbage, the result would be even better. The dish is a riot of sweet, sour, bitter, rich and poor.