Spaghetti Alla Puttanesca

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. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together15,539 recipes

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

2. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together25,665 recipes

   Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

3. Olive + caperstop 3% of all pairs
   Smell alikestrong
   Cooked together1,688 recipes

   Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

4. Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together14,076 recipes

   Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
   Smell alikestrong
   Cooked together17,451 recipes

   Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovies

Melt into the oil to build a deep, savory base flavor in the sauce.

Plum tomatoes

Form the body of the sauce and add moisture and bright acidity.

Black olives

Add salty, briny flavor and a meaty texture to the sauce.

Capers

Add sharp, salty bursts of acidity that cut through the richness of the oil.

Spaghetti

Provides the starchy base that the sauce clings to when coated.

Garlic

Adds aromatic pungency that mellows as it cooks in the oil.

The step that matters

Swap the plum

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

1. Avocadofits better
2. Limefits better
3. Lemonfits better
4. Plumthe original

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