Name: Bow Tie Pasta with Corn, Thyme, and Parmesan Recipe
Cook time: 45 min
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients: 1 pound short pasta, such as farfalle; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots (from about 2 medium shallots); 6 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped; 1 cup dry white wine; 4 large thyme sprigs; 2 cups corn kernels (no need to thaw if frozen); 1 1/4 cups heavy cream; 1 3/4 teaspoons kosher salt , plus more as needed; 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper , plus more as needed; 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 ounce), plus more for serving; 1/4 cup finely chopped chives (from about 1 1/2 bunches)

Why it works: Pasta and shallot share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 67 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 + shallottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together67 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,476 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Pasta + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,079 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,108 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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 (pasta, olive, shallot, garlic, white wine, thyme, corn):

Capersfits better
Tarragonfits better
Parsleyfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pasta, olive, shallot, garlic, white wine, thyme, corn. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pasta	1 cup cooked (140g)	220
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Parmesan Cheese	1 oz (28g)	110
Corn	1/2 cup kernels (82g)	77
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Chives	1 tbsp (3g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Bow Tie Pasta with Corn, Thyme, and Parmesan Recipe