Skip to main content
Main

Macaroni with Tomato Sauce

A simple pasta dish made with macaroni, butter, salt, pepper, and a tomato-based sauce simmered from bones and stewed tomatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Macaroni with Tomato Sauce

Why it works: Pepper and tomato 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 with Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Break the macaroni into short pieces.

  2. Place the macaroni in boiling water to cover.

  3. Cook for 20 minutes until tender.

  4. Drain the macaroni carefully.

  5. Stir in butter, salt, and pepper gently.

Make the tomato sauce

  1. In a pot, add bones and trimmings to cold water.

  2. Simmer until reduced to less than 1 cup of gravy.

  3. Strain out the bones.

  4. Season the gravy to taste.

  5. Add the leftover stewed tomatoes.

  6. Cook together for 3 minutes.

Serve

  1. Pour the hot sauce over the macaroni.

  2. Let it sit covered for a few minutes before serving.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

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 absorbs butter and sauce as its starch structure sets during cooking.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the drained macaroni.
Stewed tomatoes
Provide acidity and body to the sauce, balancing the savory gravy.
Leftover bones and trimmings
Release gelatin and flavour into the water, giving the sauce body and savoury depth.

The step that matters

Simmer the bone gravy until reduced. Reducing the liquid concentrates flavour and gelatin from the bones, so the sauce gains body instead of tasting thin and watery.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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.

More macaroni with tomato sauce recipes

Baked 8 See all 57 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes