Name: Stir-fried Pasta with Orange and Curry
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 1 h
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: 3 tbsp olive oil; 3 tbsp finely chopped garlic; 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh root ginger; 1 small onion; 2 tbsp finely grated orange; 6 bacon; 2 red peppers; 2 yellow peppers; 2 tsp sugar; 300ml/10½fl oz chicken stock; 1 x 400g/14oz can chopped tomatoes; 3 tbsp Madras curry paste; 2 tbsp tomato purée; 1 tsp salt; ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper; 450g/1lb dried Italian pastafarfalle; 1 handful chopped fresh basil; 1 handful chopped fresh chives

Why it works: Garlic and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. 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.

Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Ginger + orangetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,833 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,402 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Garlic + chickentop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,850 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

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

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, garlic, ginger, onion, pepper, sugar, chicken):

Limefits better
Lemonfits better
Avocadofits better
Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, garlic, ginger, onion, pepper, sugar, chicken. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Orange	1 medium (131g)	62
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bacon	1 slice cooked (8g)	43
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Basil	5 leaves fresh (2.5g)	1
Chives	1 tbsp (3g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Stir-fried Pasta with Orange and Curry