Name: The Pioneer Woman Cooks – Penne Alla Betsy!
Ingredients: 1 lb penne; 1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined; 2 tbsp butter; 2 tbsp olive oil; 1 onion, diced; 2 garlic cloves, chopped; 1/2 cup white wine; 14.5 oz tomato sauce; 1 cup heavy cream; 1/4 cup chopped parsley; 6 basil leaves, chiffonade; salt and pepper

Why it works: Onion and garlic 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.

Onion + garlictop 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).
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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, butter, olive, onion, garlic, white wine, tomato):

Thymefits better
Capersfits better
Parsleyfits better
Clovethe original

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

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Shrimp	100g cooked	99
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Basil	5 leaves fresh (2.5g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

The Pioneer Woman Cooks – Penne Alla Betsy!