Why it works: Cheese and avocado work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and 363 recipes mention both. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓
The recipe
24 individual servingsIngredients
Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Make the sauce
Melt butter.
Stir in flour.
Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes.
Whisk in milk.
Simmer over medium‑low heat, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens and coats the back of a spoon, about 10 minutes.
Stir in salt and cayenne pepper.
Stir in cheese until it melts and is completely incorporated.
Stir in tomato and parsley; reserve.
Combine and bake
Cook pasta in salted, boiling water until almost done.
Drain well.
Bake at 350°F until lightly browned and bubbly, about 30 minutes.
To bake individual servings, put approximately 1‑1/3 cups pasta mixture in each of 24 buttered gratinee dishes.
Bake at 350°F until lightly browned and bubbly, about 15 minutes.
This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.
Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.
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.
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Cheese + avocadotop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together363 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
-
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,118 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Tomato + avocadotop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,385 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Butter + milktop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together81,222 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Butter + cheesetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together7,955 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Unsalted butter
- Forms the fat base of the roux that begins the sauce.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms a roux with the butter that thickens the milk into a smooth sauce.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as it simmers.
- Pesto jack cheese
- Melts into the sauce to add richness and a creamy, stretchy texture.
- Elbow macaroni
- Provides the starchy body of the dish, holding the sauce within it.
- California avocados
- Add creamy richness and body to the dish.
The step that matters
Simmer the sauce until it coats a spoon. Flour thickens the milk only as it simmers and reaches a steady boil-free heat, so stopping early leaves a thin sauce that will not cling to the pasta. Adding cheese to a sauce that is too hot can make it grainy or oily, so the cheese should melt in gently over lower heat.
Flavor stand-ins for the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, pepper, cheese, tomato, avocado):
- Corianderbetter flavor fit
- Thymeabout as good a flavor fit
- Basilabout as good a flavor fit
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, pepper, cheese, tomato, avocado. 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).
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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