Name: Skillet-baked Spinach and Bacon Pasta
Prep time: 8 min
Cook time: 20 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: ½ teaspoons Salt (For Boiling Water); 8 ounces, weight Angel Hair Pasta; 1 whole Lemon (washed, Zest And Juice); 1 cup Ricotta Cheese; ½ teaspoons Black Pepper; 6 slices Crispy Cooked Bacon (Cut Into Pieces); 12 ounces, weight Fresh Baby Spinach (Rinsed, Dried, Roughly Chopped); ½ cups Shredded Mozzarella; ½ cups Grated Parmesan Cheese

Why it works: Pasta and spinach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 376 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Skillet-baked Spinach and Bacon Pasta

Serves 4

Prep8 min

Cook20 min

Ingredients

½ teaspoons Salt (For Boiling Water)
8 ounces, weight Angel Hair Pasta
1 whole Lemon (washed, Zest And Juice)
1 cup Ricotta Cheese
½ teaspoons Black Pepper
6 slices Crispy Cooked Bacon (Cut Into Pieces)
12 ounces, weight Fresh Baby Spinach (Rinsed, Dried, Roughly Chopped)
½ cups Shredded Mozzarella
½ cups Grated Parmesan Cheese

Directions

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

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

657Calories

40 gProtein

28 gFat

57 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pasta	1 cup cooked (140g)	220
Ricotta Cheese	1/2 cup (124g) part-skim	174
Parmesan Cheese	1 oz (28g)	110
Mozzarella Cheese	1 oz (28g)	85
Bacon	1 slice cooked (8g)	43
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Spinach	1 cup raw (30g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Pasta + spinachtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together376 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Lemon + spinachtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,109 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Pepper + spinachtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,400 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Pasta + lemontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together565 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pasta, ricotta cheese, pepper, spinach, parmesan cheese):

Lemonthe original
Avocadofits about as well
Limefits less well
Cherryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pasta, ricotta cheese, pepper, spinach, parmesan cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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