Skip to main content
Main

Italian Spaghetti

A baked spaghetti dish topped with tomato sauce, cheese, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Italian Spaghetti

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cook the spaghetti

  1. Boil salted water.

  2. Add spaghetti and cook until well done.

  3. Wash spaghetti in cold water.

  4. Arrange spaghetti in a baking dish.

Make the tomato sauce

  1. In a pot, combine strained tomatoes, quartered onion, grated cheese, salt, and pepper.

  2. Cook the mixture for 20 minutes until thickened.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the tomato mixture over the spaghetti.

  2. Cover with cracker crumbs.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

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 + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Tomato + cheesetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,896 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + cheesetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,849 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Spaghetti
Forms the bulk of the dish and holds the sauce in layers.
Strained tomatoes
Provide the moisture and acidity that form the sauce base.
Grated cheese
Melts into the sauce and adds richness and savory flavor.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the tomato mixture as it cooks.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping during baking.

The step that matters

Cook the tomato mixture until thickened. Simmering the strained tomatoes drives off excess water. A thick sauce keeps the baked dish from becoming soggy and lets it hold its layers when served.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Eggplantfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cheese, 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesMacaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipes