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Bread with Tomato Sauce

A Tuscan bread soup made with dry bread, tomato purée, garlic, basil, and olive oil.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and basil are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,979 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Bread with Tomato Sauce

Serves 2

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bread

  1. Dip the bread in water for a short time so that you can crush it with your hands; it should not be soaked.

Cook the sauce

  1. Fry the garlic in a large frying pan with oil until it begins to change color.

  2. Add the tomato purée and salt, and cook over medium heat until it comes to a boil.

  3. Add pieces of bread, none smaller than a walnut, after wringing, and continue to mix it with the tomato until it has become completely red.

Serve

  1. Remove from heat and serve hot in a bowl, seasoned with a drizzle of olive oil, pepper, and a basil leaf.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

607Calories
15 gProtein
15 gFat
102 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Basil5 leaves fresh (2.5g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Tomato + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Garlic + basiltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Basil + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. 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

Dry bread
Soaks up the tomato and thickens the sauce into a soft, porridge-like texture.
Tomato purée
Forms the base of the sauce, providing moisture, acidity and body.
Garlic
Adds aromatic flavor when fried gently in oil at the start.
Basil leaves
Contributes fresh, aromatic herbal flavor added at the end.

The step that matters

Dipping the bread. The bread must be only briefly dipped and then wrung out. Soaking it adds too much water, which dilutes the tomato and leaves the soup thin and soggy instead of thick.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, tomato, garlic, basil, pepper):

  1. Oreganofits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, tomato, garlic, basil, 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.

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