Krautfleckerl

Krautfleckerl is small square pasta tossed with cabbage caramelized dark and sweet in butter. It's Austria's humble pasta-and-cabbage dish, built from almost nothing in the pantry, and it turns genuinely rich through nothing more than time — cabbage cooked slowly enough to caramelize is what carries the whole dish.

What it actually is

Shredded cabbage cooks low and slow in butter with a little onion, well past the point of just softening, until it turns deeply golden-brown and sweet, its natural sugars caramelizing the way onions do in a long, patient sauté. Small, square-cut Fleckerl pasta boils separately and tosses through the caramelized cabbage at the end, picking up its colour and sweetness.

The cabbage has to caramelize, not just soften. A version where the cabbage is simply boiled or lightly sautéed until tender stays pale and mild — Krautfleckerl depends on the long, slow cook that browns the cabbage into something genuinely sweet and deeply flavoured.

How it's served

• Hot, tossed through, straight from the pan.
• As a main course, filling on its own, or as a side to a roast.
• Without meat, in the classic version, though bacon is sometimes added.

Writing it on a menu

• Flag gluten and egg from the pasta.
• Say that it's naturally vegetarian in the classic version, though bacon is a common addition.
• Note the slow caramelization of the cabbage as a real point of craft, since it's easy to undersell on a menu description.
• Mention if bacon or other additions are included, since the plain version is a straightforward vegetarian option.