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Spanish Spaghetti

A baked spaghetti dish with pork steak, onions, tomatoes, and paprika.

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 ↓

Spanish Spaghetti

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cook the spaghetti

  1. Break the spaghetti into small pieces and drop it into 3 quarts of salted boiling water.

  2. Boil steadily for 30 minutes.

  3. Drain the spaghetti in a colander and place it in a baking dish.

  4. Add the can of tomatoes to the spaghetti.

Prepare the pork and onions

  1. Run the pork steak through a meat chopper, season with salt and pepper, and fry until browned.

  2. Finely chop the onions, season, and fry until browned.

Bake and serve

  1. Add the browned onions and meat to the spaghetti.

  2. Season with a little more salt, pepper, and ½ teaspoon paprika.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes, adding a small amount of hot water if it appears dry.

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. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  4. Pork + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,843 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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 absorbs the tomato and meat juices as it bakes.
Pork steak
Supplies the savoury meat flavour; browning it first adds depth to the dish.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma when fried until browned.
Tomatoes
Provide moisture and acidity that season and loosen the spaghetti as it bakes.

The step that matters

Adding hot water during baking. Spaghetti keeps absorbing liquid in the oven, so if the dish looks dry, a small splash of hot water keeps it moist and prevents scorching at the surface.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, tomato, 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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