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Tagliatelle Bake

A baked pasta dish with tagliatelle, minced beef, tomato sauce, mozzarella, cream, and parmesan cheese.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Tagliatelle Bake

4–6
Oven180°C (160°C convection / 350°F / gas mark 4)
Time30 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C convection / 350°F / gas mark 4).

  2. Heat 3 tbsp oil in a large pan.

  3. Add the onion, carrot and celery.

  4. Cook gently until soft but not coloured.

  5. Add the minced beef and cook until browned, breaking up the mince as much as possible.

  6. Add the parsley.

  7. Pour in the white wine and cook for 5 minutes to burn off the alcohol.

  8. Season to taste and add the chopped tomatoes.

  9. Cook over a low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Cook the pasta

  1. Bring a large pan of water to the boil and salt it.

  2. Add the pasta and cook following pack instructions or until the pasta is firm to the bite (al dente).

  3. Drain the pasta.

Assemble and bake

  1. Grease an oven dish.

  2. Thinly cover the bottom with some of the tomato sauce.

  3. Fill with half the quantity of the pasta, the diced mozzarella, half of the tomato sauce, half of the cream and cover with half of the grated Parmesan cheese.

  4. Fill the oven dish with another layer of tagliatelle, the remaining mozzarella, the tomato sauce, the cream and cover with Parmesan cheese and some freshly grated nutmeg.

  5. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the top of the dish is golden.

  6. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes.

  7. Add a few basil leaves and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

977Calories
54 gProtein
50 gFat
71 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 16 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Pasta1 cup cooked (140g)220
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Parmesan Cheese1 oz (28g)110
Mozzarella Cheese1 oz (28g)85
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Pasta + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together732 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pasta + olivetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh tagliatelle pasta
Forms the layers and gives the bake its body and bite.
Minced beef
Provides savoury depth and substance to the meat sauce once browned.
Tinned chopped tomatoes
Form the acidic, moist base of the sauce that coats the pasta.
Parmesan cheese
Adds salty, savoury flavour and browns on top as it bakes.
Mozzarella
Melts into stretchy pockets between layers, adding richness and creaminess.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, helping the layers set softly without drying.

The step that matters

Cooking the mince until browned. Browning the beef builds deep savoury flavour through the Maillard reaction. Breaking the mince up finely keeps it from clumping, so the sauce stays evenly textured.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pasta, olive, carrot, celery, beef, parsley, white wine):

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pasta, olive, carrot, celery, beef, parsley, white wine. 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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