Red onions cooked down slowly until their sharpness turns into something altogether gentler. Slow is the whole trick here — there is no shortcut that produces this flavour, only time and someone willing to stand over the pan while it happens.

The result is deep burgundy and glossy, properly sweet but with a savoury undertow, and none of the flat syrupy quality that gives caramelised onion a bad name.

Born for a cheeseboard: mature cheddar, a firm pecorino, anything blue. It also does unreasonable things to a sausage sandwich, and to cold roast beef the day after Sunday.