Name: Grilled Octopus with Kale, Tomatoes, and Beans
Yield: Makes 6 servings
Ingredients: 1 small octopus, cleaned (about 5 pound); 1 cup dry white wine; 2 heads of elephant garlic, cloves unpeeled, separated; 1 sprig fresh rosemary; 6 plum tomatoes, cored; 5 tablespoons (or more) extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus 3/4 cup; Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper; 4 teaspoons coriander seeds; 1/4 cup red wine vinegar; 3 pound kale, center stalks removed, leaves torn into 4" pieces; 1 1/2 cups dried cannellini or pinto beans, cooked according to package directions; Elephant garlic, available at better supermarkets and at melissas.com, looks like garlic that's been supersized.

Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. 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.

Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Garlic + olivetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Rosemary + olivetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,590 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Clove + rosemarytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together519 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

Swap the plum

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, garlic, clove, rosemary, tomato, olive, pepper):

Lemonfits better
Limefits better
Plumthe original
Avocadofits about as well

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

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pinto Bean	1/2 cup (86g) canned	122
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Plum	1 medium (66g)	30
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Spinach	1 cup raw (30g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Rosemary	1 tsp dried (1.2g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Octopus	not in our table	0
Coriander	not in our table	0
Seed	not in our table	0

Grilled Octopus with Kale, Tomatoes, and Beans