Why it works: Beans and pasta match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 175 recipes mention both. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Make the sauce
In a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat, simmer the ketchup, water, tomato puree, dijon mustard, paprika, garlic, oregano, thyme, cumin, nutmeg, and white pepper for 15 minutes.
Add the beans and keep warm over low heat.
Cook the vegetables and pasta
Steam the red and yellow peppers for about 3 minutes, then set aside and keep warm.
Steam the broccoli and onions for 4 to 5 minutes, or until crisp-tender, then set aside and keep warm.
While the vegetables are steaming, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling water until just tender, about 8 minutes.
Serve
Drain the pasta and transfer to a large platter.
Top with the sauce.
Top with the vegetables.
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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Beans + pastatop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together175 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,099 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Oregano + cumintop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together983 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Tomato + beanstop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,711 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Tomato + oreganotop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,767 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ketchup
- Provides the tomato base, sweetness and acidity that carry the sauce.
- Tomato puree
- Adds body and thickness to the sauce.
- Black beans
- Add substance, texture and earthy flavour to the sauce.
- Dijon mustard
- Adds sharp tang that balances the sweetness of the ketchup.
- Fettuccine or tagliatelle
- Forms the base of the dish, holding the sauce and vegetables.
The step that matters
Steaming the vegetables to crisp-tender. Steaming for too long softens the broccoli and onions and dulls their colour and bite. Stopping at crisp-tender keeps their texture and fresh flavour intact.
Flavor stand-ins for the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, ketchup, tomato, oregano, cumin, mustard, garlic):
- Basilbetter flavor fit
- Celerybetter flavor fit
- Thymebetter flavor fit
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, ketchup, tomato, oregano, cumin, mustard, garlic. 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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