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Macaroni and Tomatoes

A simple pasta dish of macaroni simmered in a tomato and onion sauce with butter, salt, pepper, and optional sugar.

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

Macaroni and Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Soak the macaroni in cold water for 1 hour, then wash well.

  2. Break the macaroni into 1-inch pieces and boil in water for 20 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. Make a puree of the tomatoes and onion.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the tomato puree with the butter, salt, pepper, and sugar if desired.

Combine and serve

  1. Drain the macaroni and add it to the sauce.

  2. Serve hot.

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. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the body of the dish, giving it a starchy, substantial bite.
Tomatoes
Provide the main liquid and acidity that make up the sauce.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma to the tomato puree.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel to the sauce.

The step that matters

Boiling the macaroni. Breaking the pasta before boiling for 20 minutes lets it cook through evenly. Draining it well before adding it to the sauce keeps the sauce from becoming watery.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, egg, butter, pepper, sugar. 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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