Name: Marinated Mozzarella
Ingredients: 3 (8 oz) blocks mozzarella cheese; 1 (8½ oz) jar sun-dried tomatoes, drained and halved; ½ cup olive oil; 3 tbsp finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley; 1 tsp garlic powder; 1 tsp onion powder; ½ tsp dried oregano; ½ tsp dried Italian seasonings; ¼ tsp salt; ¼ tsp freshly ground pepper; garnish: flat-leaf parsley sprigs or fresh rosemary stems

Why it works: Garlic and onion 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.

Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,767 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + oreganotop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,184 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

Mozzarella cheese: Provides the main body of the dish, softening slightly as it marinates in the oil.
Sun-dried tomatoes: Add concentrated tomato flavour and a chewy texture that contrasts with the cheese.
Olive oil: Carries the herbs and seasonings and keeps the cheese moist and flavourful.
Garlic powder: Adds savoury aroma that spreads through the oil during the long chill.

The step that matters

Chilling the marinade. Chilling for at least 8 hours lets the oil and seasonings slowly penetrate the cheese, so the flavour develops evenly rather than sitting only on the surface.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mozzarella cheese, tomato, olive, parsley, garlic, oregano, pepper):

Eggplantfits better
Capsicumfits better
Spinachfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mozzarella cheese, tomato, olive, parsley, garlic, oregano, pepper. 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
Mozzarella Cheese	1 oz (28g)	85
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Oregano	1 tsp dried (1.8g)	5
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Rosemary	1 tsp dried (1.2g)	4
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Marinated Mozzarella