Name: Italian Marinated Tomatoes
Ingredients: 2 large ripe tomatoes; 3 cloves of garlic; x chopped fresh parsley; 1 tbsp balsamic (or other) vinegar; x salt & pepper

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 34,122 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Italian Marinated Tomatoes

Timeat least an hour

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Slice tomatoes into thick slices and arrange them on a plate in one layer.
Chop raw garlic fine and sprinkle over tomatoes – make sure you get some on each slice!
Drop a teaspoon of vinegar evenly over tomatoes.
Sprinkle with finely chopped fresh parsley.

Marinate and serve

Let stand at least an hour at room temperature.
Just before serving, salt and pepper to taste.
These are good by themselves, on bread, or in a salad.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together9,308 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together6,768 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes: Provide the main body and juice that the vinegar and garlic flavour.
Garlic: Adds sharp, pungent aroma that mellows as it stands.
Balsamic vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the tomatoes and balances their sweetness.

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, garlic, parsley, vinegar, pepper):

Thymebetter flavor fit
Basilbetter flavor fit
Tarragonbetter flavor fit
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, garlic, parsley, vinegar, pepper. 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.