Name: Pasta, Pesto, and Peas
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 12 min
Yield: 12 servings
Ingredients: 3/4 pound fusilli pasta; 3/4 pound bow tie pasta; 1/4 cup good olive oil; 1 1/2 cups pesto; 1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry; 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice; 1 1/4 cups good mayonnaise; 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan; 1 1/2 cups frozen peas, defrosted; 1/3 cup pignolis (pine nuts); 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt; 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 1/4 cup walnuts; 1/4 cup pine nuts; 3 tablespoons chopped garlic (9 cloves); 5 cups fresh basil leaves, packed; 1 teaspoon kosher salt; 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 1 1/2 cups good olive oil; 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Why it works: Pasta and spinach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 376 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. 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.

Pasta + spinachtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together376 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Spinach + pinetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together181 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Pasta + pinetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together136 recipes

Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Lemon + pinetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together480 recipes

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

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

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pasta, olive, spinach, lemon, peas, pine, pepper):

Chickpeafits better
Lentilsfits better
Cashew nutfits better
Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pasta, olive, spinach, lemon, peas, pine, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pasta	1 cup cooked (140g)	220
Pine Nut	1 oz (28g)	191
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Parmesan Cheese	1 oz (28g)	110
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Pea	1/2 cup (72g)	62
Walnut	1 walnut half (4g)	26
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Spinach	1 cup raw (30g)	7
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Basil	5 leaves fresh (2.5g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Pasta, Pesto, and Peas