simple table without formatting

I'm trying to create a simple table, the sort that one would do on a 
typewriter using tabs. How on earth do you do it!

Something simple like

1.	I now want this
	text properly left aligned.

Note that there is NO boxing around it - from what I can make out as 
soon as you tell Sphinx "this is a table" it goes and makes the table 
structure visible! But it's not a table I want - I just want tab 
indented text or similar!

But as soon as I attempt to treat it like tab-indented, all my 
indentation gets screwed up and I end up with something like

1. I now want this
       text properly left aligned.

This is oh so simple with tabs or fixed width fonts - why do so many 
modern systems find it almost impossible!

Cheers,
Wol