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Mediterranean Turkey Pasta Salad

"A great use for leftover turkey any time of the year. Combine turkey with cooked pasta, olives, tomatoes and feta cheese. Then toss in an easy-to-make dressing. Serve chilled or at room temperature."

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Why it works: Turkey and feta cheese work together. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and 2 recipes mention both. Both carry hexyl acetate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

The recipe

8 servings
Prep30 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (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.

  1. Whisk the olive oil, red wine vinegar, minced garlic and dried oregano together in a large bowl until blended.

  2. Add the cubed turkey breast to the dressing and toss to coat evenly.

  3. Add the cooked penne, chopped kalamata olives, halved grape tomatoes, chopped Italian parsley and thinly sliced red onions to the bowl.

  4. Gently toss everything together so the pasta and vegetables are evenly coated with dressing.

  5. Crumble the feta cheese over the salad and fold it in lightly so it stays in pieces.

  6. Cover and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes so the flavors blend and the salad chills.

  7. Line a serving platter with the spring lettuce mix.

  8. Spoon the pasta salad over the greens just before serving and keep any leftovers refrigerated.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

  1. Turkey + feta cheesetop 20% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

  2. Olive + feta cheesetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,438 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  3. Olive + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together23,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Garlic + oreganotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,756 recipes

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

  5. Red wine + grapetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together75 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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 (olive, red wine, vinegar, garlic, oregano, turkey, pasta):

  1. Lemonbetter flavor fit
  2. Plumabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Cherryabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, red wine, vinegar, garlic, oregano, turkey, pasta. 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).