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Macaroni a LA Italienne

A macaroni dish with butter, flour, stock, tomato pulp, paprika, and Parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Macaroni a LA Italienne

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 LA Italienne

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Cook the macaroni in boiling salted water until tender, then drain and rinse in cold water.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the flour, salt, and paprika.

  2. Add the stock and tomato pulp, stirring until combined.

  3. Add the drained macaroni and heat through, stirring occasionally.

Finish and serve

  1. Mix in the grated Parmesan cheese, lifting the macaroni with a fork and spoon to combine.

  2. Serve immediately.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + tomatotop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Flour + tomatotop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Provides the starchy body that the sauce coats and clings to.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and carries the flour into a smooth roux.
Flour
Thickens the stock and tomato pulp into a smooth, coating sauce.
Seasoned stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding savory flavor.
Reduced tomato pulp
Adds acidity, body and tomato flavor to the sauce.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty depth and helps the sauce cling to the pasta.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce with flour. Flour must be cooked into the melted butter and stirred smooth before the liquids are added. If it is not, it clumps and the sauce stays lumpy and floury instead of silky and cohesive.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, 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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