Name: Kale Pasta Salad
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Yield: 12
Ingredients: 1 pound Bowtie Pasta (farfalle); 3 Tablespoons Pine Nuts; 1/4 cup Olive Oil; 6 cloves Garlic, Minced; 2 teaspoons Salt, More To Taste; 1 teaspoon Black Pepper, More To Taste; 1 bunch Kale, Finely Sliced; 4 ounces, weight Parmesan Cheese, Shaved; 2 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar (optional)

Why it works: Pasta and kale share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 39 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 12

Prep10 min

Cook15 min

Ingredients

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

1 pound Bowtie Pasta (farfalle)
3 Tablespoons Pine Nuts
1/4 cup Olive Oil
6 cloves Garlic, Minced
2 teaspoons Salt, More To Taste
1 teaspoon Black Pepper, More To Taste
1 bunch Kale, Finely Sliced
4 ounces, weight Parmesan Cheese, Shaved
2 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar (optional)

Directions

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

By thepioneerwoman. 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.

Pasta + kaletop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together39 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Olive + garlictop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together23,449 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Garlic + kaletop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together490 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Pasta + garlictop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together2,077 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Olive + parmesan cheesetop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together4,076 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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 (pasta, pine, olive, garlic, pepper, kale, parmesan cheese):

Chickpeabetter flavor fit
Lentilsbetter flavor fit
Beansbetter flavor fit
Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pasta, pine, olive, garlic, pepper, kale, parmesan cheese. 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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