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Asparagus Goat Cheese Flatbread

The tastiest (and easiest) way to prepare fresh asparagus: with mushrooms and goat cheese on a crispy, golden flatbread!

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Why it works: Wheat and asparagus share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 40 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 6
Prep20 min
Cook25 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, sesame (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. Heat the oven to 450°F (232°C) and place a baking sheet or pizza pan in it to heat.

  2. Let the thawed pizza dough rest on the counter for 10 minutes, then stretch it into a large rough oval or rectangle on an oiled sheet of parchment, using 1 tablespoon of the sesame oil.

  3. Brush the dough with 1 tablespoon of the sesame oil, then sprinkle it with the garlic powder and sesame seeds.

  4. Scatter the asparagus, sliced shallot, and sliced mushrooms over the dough, then sprinkle with the crushed red pepper flakes.

  5. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the crust is golden and the edges are crisp and the vegetables are tender.

  6. Scatter the crumbled goat cheese over the hot flatbread and bake 2 to 3 minutes more, until the cheese softens.

  7. Let the flatbread rest for 2 minutes, then slice and serve warm.

By tastykitchen. 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. Wheat + asparagustop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together40 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Sesame + asparagustop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together73 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  3. Shallot + mushroomtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,960 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Shallot + asparagustop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Asparagus + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together400 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sesame, wheat, garlic, asparagus, mushroom, goat cheese, pepper):

  1. Spinachbetter flavor fit
  2. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  3. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sesame, wheat, garlic, asparagus, mushroom, goat cheese, 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).