Name: Italian Sausage Soup
Ingredients: 2 large onions, chopped; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 5 cups beef broth; 1 pound Italian sausage; 1 1/2 cups dry red wine; 28 ounces Italian-style tomatoes, broken up; 1 tablespoon basil; 1 tablespoon sugar; 1 medium green pepper, seeded and chopped; 2 medium zucchini, sliced 1/4-inch thick; 2 cups dry bow tie pasta, 1 1/2-inch size; 1/2 cup chopped parsley; salt and pepper

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).
Tomato + basiltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,979 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,805 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Clove + basiltop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,437 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Sausage: Renders fat and meat flavour into the broth as it browns.
Onions: Caramelise when browned, adding sweetness and depth to the soup base.
Red wine: Deglazes the pan, lifting browned bits and adding acidity and aroma.
Tomatoes: Add acidity, body and moisture to the broth.
Pasta: Absorbs liquid and thickens the soup as it cooks.
Zucchini: Softens during simmering, adding moisture and mild texture.

The step that matters

Deglazing the browned vegetables. Browning builds deep flavour through the Maillard reaction, but adding water too early or to a crowded pan steams the vegetables instead. Scrape up the browned bits with each small addition of water so the flavour is lifted into the soup rather than lost.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, garlic, beef, red wine, tomato, basil, sugar):

Oreganofits better
Thymefits better
Cuminfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, garlic, beef, red wine, tomato, basil, sugar. 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
Beef	100g cooked	250
Pork	100g cooked	242
Pasta	1 cup cooked (140g)	220
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Cucumber	1/2 cup sliced (52g)	16
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Basil	5 leaves fresh (2.5g)	1
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Italian Sausage Soup