Name: Italian Bread Salad with Strawberries and Tomatoes
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 10 min
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: 1 loaf Italian bread, cut into 1-inch cubes; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 1 teaspoon garlic powder; 1 teaspoon onion powder; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper; 1 pint fresh strawberries, diced; 3 roma (plum) tomatoes, seeded and diced; 2 ounces crumbled feta cheese; 3 tablespoons red onion, diced; 1/4 cup olive oil; 1/4 cup red wine vinegar; 2 tablespoons honey

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).
Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Olive + feta cheesetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,482 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

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

Swap the plum

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, olive, garlic, onion, pepper, tomato, feta cheese):

Avocadofits better
Limefits about as well
Cherryfits about as well
Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, olive, garlic, onion, pepper, tomato, feta cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Feta Cheese	1 oz (28g) cheddar	113
Honey	1 tbsp (21g)	64
Strawberry	1 cup (152g)	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Plum	1 medium (66g)	30
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Italian Bread Salad with Strawberries and Tomatoes