Name: Fusilli with Fresh Tomato and Olive Sauce
Ingredients: 1/4 cup olive oil; 1 cup Kalamata olives or other brine-cured black olives, pitted, chopped; 1 medium onion, chopped; 6 garlic cloves, chopped; 1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper; 1 1/2 pounds plum tomatoes (about 8 large), chopped; 2 tablespoons tomato paste; 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar; 1 pound fusilli, freshly cooked; 1 1/2 cups soy cheese (I used a combo of soy parm and soy mozzerella); 1 cup chopped fresh basil

Why it works: Onion and garlic 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.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Plum + red winetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together107 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Olive oil: Carries the garlic and onion flavour and helps the aromatics soften evenly in the pot.
Kalamata olives: Add salty, briny depth and a savoury, meaty note to the sauce.
Plum tomatoes: Form the body of the sauce and provide moisture and bright acidity.
Tomato paste: Concentrates tomato flavour and thickens the sauce, adding savoury depth.
Red wine vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the tomatoes and balances the richness of the olives.
Fusilli: Provides the starchy base that the sauce clings to in each bite.

The step that matters

Warming the tomatoes only until just warmed through. Cooking tomatoes too long turns fresh, bright flavour dull and can make the sauce watery or cooked-down, so stop once they are heated.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, garlic, clove, pepper, plum, tomato, red wine):

Capsicumfits better
Eggplantfits better
Spinachfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, garlic, clove, pepper, plum, tomato, red wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Cheese	1 oz (28g) cheddar	113
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Plum	1 medium (66g)	30
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Olive	1 large (4g)	4
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Basil	5 leaves fresh (2.5g)	1

Fusilli with Fresh Tomato and Olive Sauce