Name: Lawrence Dallaglio's Lasagne Recipe
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 1 h 50 min
Yield: 4 people
Ingredients: 500 Lean beef mince; g Onion, peeled and finely chopped; 1 Carrot, peeled and finely chopped; 1 Celery stick, finely chopped; 1 Can chopped tomatoes; 400 Tomato purée; g Hot beef stock; 1 Red wine; tbsp Bay leaves; 300 Salt and freshly ground black pepper; ml Butter; 100 Plain flour; ml Skimmed milk; 2 Nutmeg, to season; 1 Dried lasagne sheets; pinch Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. 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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,606 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 onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, celery, tomato, red wine, pepper, butter):

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Onionthe original
Turnipfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, celery, tomato, red wine, pepper, butter. 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
Beef	100g cooked	250
Skimmed Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Parmesan Cheese	1 oz (28g)	110
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Lawrence Dallaglio's Lasagne Recipe