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Arugula Pesto with Herbed Ricotta Gnocchi

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Why it works: Nutmeg and ricotta cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 128 recipes mention both. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By epicurious. 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. Nutmeg + ricotta cheesetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together128 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Garlic + spinachtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).

  3. Pine + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together71 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Garlic + olivetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together23,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Spinach + ricotta cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together250 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (garlic, pine, arugula, spinach, parmesan cheese, olive, pepper):

  1. Chickpeabetter flavor fit
  2. Beansbetter flavor fit
  3. Walnutbetter flavor fit
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against garlic, pine, arugula, spinach, parmesan cheese, olive, pepper. 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).