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Not Your Usual Pasta Salad

"I created this salad because I wanted something with a little kick and a lot of texture and taste. This is a recipe you can tweak to make it your own. It keeps well in fridge and is best served cold as a side dish. You can add diced ham or even a can of chunky tuna to make a complete meal."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Pasta and water chestnut share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 8 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

16 servings
Prep20 min
Cook20 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts, soy, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the seashell pasta and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain, rinse under cold water, and let cool.

  2. While the pasta cooks, place the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat and cook until crisp, about 8 minutes. Drain on paper towels, then crumble.

  3. In a small bowl, whisk the creamy salad dressing, white wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, olive oil, crushed garlic, Dijon mustard, and dried oregano until smooth.

  4. In a large bowl, combine the finely diced red onion, drained water chestnuts, chopped hard-cooked eggs, diced green and red bell peppers, diced celery, and sliced black olives.

  5. Add the cooled pasta, diced sharp Cheddar, grated Parmesan, and crumbled bacon to the vegetable bowl and stir to combine.

  6. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well until everything is evenly coated.

  7. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour so the flavors blend. Stir again before serving.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Pasta + water chestnuttop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Olive + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together23,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Garlic + oreganotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pasta + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,077 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Vinegar and mustard share little aroma chemistry, yet 14,067 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the oregano

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pasta, white wine, vinegar, sauce, olive, garlic, mustard):

  1. Capersbetter flavor fit
  2. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  3. Thymebetter flavor fit
  4. Oreganothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pasta, white wine, vinegar, sauce, olive, garlic, mustard. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).