Name: Dee's Sexy, Spicy, Shrimp, Sausage, and Peppers
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 30 min
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: 1/2 pound uncooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined; 1 shallot, sliced; 1 clove garlic, minced; 1 teaspoon Creole seasoning; 1/4 cup olive oil; 1 pound thin spaghetti; 1 tablespoon olive oil; 5 (3.5 ounce) links sweet Italian sausage; 1 red bell pepper, sliced; 1 yellow bell pepper, sliced; 1 green bell pepper, sliced; 1 onion, chopped; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 1/2 cup red wine; 1 1/2 cups pasta sauce; 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste; 1 pinch salt, or to taste; 1/4 cup butter

Why it works: Garlic and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

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.

Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Garlic + olivetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,000 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,677 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, shallot, garlic, olive, pepper, onion, red wine):

Thymefits better
Capersfits better
Parsleyfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, shallot, garlic, olive, pepper, onion, red wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pork	100g cooked	242
Pasta	1 cup cooked (140g)	220
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Shrimp	100g cooked	99
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Shallot	1 tbsp minced (10g)	7
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Sauce	not in our table	0

Dee's Sexy, Spicy, Shrimp, Sausage, and Peppers