Why it works: Olive and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,164 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
The recipe
4 servingsIngredients
Contains: egg, wheat (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.
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
Add the minced garlic and cook about 1 minute, stirring, until fragrant but not browned.
Add the chopped tomatoes, stir well, and simmer over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thickened into a sauce.
Use a spoon to make 6 small wells in the tomato sauce, spacing them evenly.
Crack 1 egg into each well, cover the skillet, and cook over low heat for 5 to 7 minutes until the whites are fully set. Cook longer if you prefer firmer yolks.
While the eggs cook, warm the pita rounds in a dry pan or wrapped in foil over low heat for a few minutes, then cut them into wedges.
Serve the shakshuka straight from the skillet with the warm pita wedges.
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.
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Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together14,164 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Tomato + garlictop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together14,075 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Olive + garlictop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together23,449 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Garlic + pita breadtop 6% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together136 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Tomato + pita breadtop 9% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together113 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the garlic
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, tomato, egg, pita bread):
- Cuminabout as good a flavor fit
- Garlicthe original
- Basilabout as good a flavor fit
- Oreganoabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against olive, tomato, egg, pita bread. 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).
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