Skip to main content
Main

Macaronis Italienne

A simple pasta dish of macaroni tossed with butter, Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Macaronis Italienne

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Cook the macaroni in salted water until fully cooked for 25 to 30 minutes.

  2. Drain the macaroni and place them in a saucepan.

Dress and serve

  1. Add fresh butter and gently mix in Parmesan cheese with a fork.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg.

  3. Serve in a dish, sprinkling more cheese on top.

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.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

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

  4. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaronis
Form the main body of the dish, giving it its chewy, starchy bulk.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and a smooth coating that helps the cheese cling to the pasta.
Parmesan cheese
Melts into the warm pasta to add savory, salty flavor and a creamy texture.
Black pepper
Adds sharp, aromatic heat that balances the richness of the butter and cheese.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic note that complements the butter and cheese.

The step that matters

Drain the macaroni and add the butter while still hot. Pasta that is still hot lets the butter and cheese melt and coat evenly. If it cools first, the cheese clumps and the sauce turns greasy and uneven.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Basilfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parmesan cheese, pepper. 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.

More italian macaroni recipes

Casserole 3Pie 3 See all 13 →

You might also like

Macaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesCheese MakingCheese Making50 recipesCheese FrittersCheese Fritters34 recipesCheese OmeletteCheese Omelette31 recipes