Name: Roasted Red Pepper Baked Ziti
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 1 h
Yield: 5
Ingredients: 4 whole Large Red Bell Peppers; 1 pound Ziti Pasta; 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil; 2 cloves Garlic, Minced; ¼ cups Diced Yellow Onion; 1 pinch Salt And Pepper, to taste; 2 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar; ¼ cups Red Wine (I Used Merlot); 1 Tablespoon Unsalted Butter; 1 Tablespoon All-purpose Flour; 1 cup Vegetable Stock; 1 cup Milk (I Used Skim); ¼ cups Light Cream Cheese; 1 cup Shredded Mozzarella Cheese; ¼ cups Fresh Parsley Chopped For Garnish

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).
Pasta + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,079 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Pasta + olivetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,227 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, pasta, olive, garlic, onion, vinegar, red wine):

Thymebetter flavor fit
Capersbetter flavor fit
Rosemarybetter flavor fit
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, pasta, olive, garlic, onion, vinegar, red wine. 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).

Roasted Red Pepper Baked Ziti