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Macaroni and Tomato

A pasta dish of macaroni served with a tomato sauce made from fresh or canned tomatoes, butter, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Macaroni and Tomato

Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Macaroni and Tomato

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the macaroni into pieces.

  2. Fill a dry soup tureen one third full with the broken macaroni.

  3. Rinse the macaroni and soak it in cold water for one hour.

  4. Boil the tomatoes in a covered saucepan for ten minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. In a large kettle, bring water to a boil.

  2. Add 2 tablespoons of salt to the boiling water.

  3. Add the macaroni to the boiling water and cook for twenty minutes or until tender.

  4. Cream the butter.

  5. Beat in the flour until smooth.

  6. Strain the boiled tomatoes.

  7. Press the strained tomatoes through a strainer to remove skins and seeds.

  8. Return the strained tomatoes to the pan. Boil again.

  9. Stir in the butter mixture until smooth.

  10. Season the sauce with salt and pepper.

Serve

  1. Drain the macaroni in a colander and transfer it to the tureen.

  2. Serve the tomato sauce in a smaller tureen or gravy boat.

  3. Pour the sauce over the macaroni in soup plates.

  4. Offer grated Parmesan cheese on the side.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Tomato + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,490 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the bulk of the dish and provides its starchy, chewy body once cooked until tender.
Tomatoes
Supply the main body, acidity and flavour of the sauce once boiled and strained.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce when beaten in with the butter, giving it body.

The step that matters

Beat the flour into the butter until smooth. Lumps of flour that are not fully worked into the butter will stay in the sauce as dry specks. Blending them smooth first lets the flour thicken the sauce evenly when it meets the hot tomatoes.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, pepper, parmesan cheese):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pepper, parmesan cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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