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
Serves 4Ingredients
Contains: milk (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 oven to 400°F (204°C) with a rack in the middle. Lightly coat a baking sheet with olive oil spray.
In a bowl, mix the pressed and minced garlic with the ricotta cheese until smooth.
Lay one phyllo sheet on the baking sheet and lightly spray it with olive oil. Repeat with the remaining sheets, stacking them into one rough round or rectangle, then fold the edges inward to form a border.
Spread the ricotta mixture over the phyllo, staying inside the folded border.
Arrange the zucchini and yellow summer squash slices in overlapping rows over the ricotta. Place the grape tomato halves cut side up between them.
Lightly spray the vegetables and border with olive oil spray.
Bake for about 20 minutes, until the phyllo is deep golden and crisp at the edges.
Sprinkle the crumbled goat cheese and chopped basil over the hot pizza. Let it rest 3 minutes, then slice and serve.
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 + basiltop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,979 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Garlic + tomatotop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together14,075 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Garlic + olivetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together23,449 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Goat cheese + olivetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together557 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the grape
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (garlic, ricotta cheese, goat cheese, olive, tomato, phyllo dough, basil):
- Lemonbetter flavor fit
- Cherrybetter flavor fit
- Orangebetter flavor fit
- Grapethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against garlic, ricotta cheese, goat cheese, olive, tomato, phyllo dough, basil. 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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