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Macaroni a L'ltalienne

A baked macaroni dish layered with tomato sauce, butter, and Parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and parmesan cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Macaroni a L'ltalienne

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.

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Break the macaroni into pieces about four inches long.

  2. Boil the macaroni in hot water with butter, salt, and white pepper.

  3. Drain the macaroni on a napkin and let it dry.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine tomato sauce and butter, mixing well.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer macaroni in a dish, cover with sauce, and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

  2. Repeat layers until the dish is full, finishing with Parmesan on top.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for five minutes and 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. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Tomato + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,490 recipes

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

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sauce + parmesan cheesetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the bulk of the dish and gives it a firm, chewy structure.
Tomato sauce
Provides moisture and acidity that coat the pasta between layers.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, softening the flavor of the sauce and pasta.
Parmesan cheese
Adds salty, savory flavor and browns on top during baking.

The step that matters

Drain the macaroni and let it dry. Excess water left on the pasta dilutes the tomato sauce and makes the layers soggy, so the pasta should be well drained before layering.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Basilfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, tomato, sauce, parmesan cheese. 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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