Why it works: Tomato and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,076 recipes mention both. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
Aubergines in a Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the aubergines
Season the sliced aubergines with salt and leave aside for 10 minutes to drain any water.
Dip each slice into the flour.
Fry the slices in a pan (or use a deep-fat fryer). Alternatively, grill the slices for 5–10 minutes on each side after brushing them with a little oil.
Leave the fried or grilled slices to cool.
Make the tomato sauce
Heat a little oil in a pan.
Add half of the crushed garlic and stir.
Add the can of tomatoes and simmer until the sauce has thickened.
Add the rest of the garlic and season with salt and pepper.
Turn off the heat and add the chopped parsley.
Assemble and serve
Arrange a layer of sauce in a dish, followed by a layer of aubergines.
Cool in the fridge for a few hours or serve immediately.
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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Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together14,076 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together9,308 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together6,768 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together5,398 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Garlic + clovetop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together11,368 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Aubergines
- Absorb sauce and become tender and soft when fried or grilled, giving the dish its body.
- Plain white flour
- Coats the slices so they brown and crisp when fried.
- Chopped tomatoes
- Form the base of the sauce, providing moisture, acidity and body as they simmer down.
- Garlic
- Adds pungent aroma that mellows and sweetens as it cooks in the oil.
The step that matters
Draining the aubergines. Aubergine slices are spongy and hold a lot of water. Salting and resting them draws out moisture, so they brown rather than steam and the dish does not become watery.
Flavor stand-ins for the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, tomato, garlic, parsley):
- Cuminbetter flavor fit
- Oreganobetter flavor fit
- Thymebetter flavor fit
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, tomato, garlic, parsley. 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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