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Noodles with Tomato Sauce

A baked noodle dish topped with tomato sauce and grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Noodles with Tomato Sauce

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.

Make the tomato sauce

  1. Boil the tomatoes until soft.

  2. Rub the cooked tomatoes through a sieve.

  3. Add finely chopped onion, butter, salt, pepper, and sugar to the tomato mixture.

Make the noodles

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg with water, salt, and red pepper.

  2. Gradually add flour to form a very stiff dough.

  3. Let the dough stand for a few minutes.

  4. Roll the dough very thin.

  5. Cut the dough into noodles.

  6. Let the noodles dry.

Bake and serve

  1. Cook the noodles in boiling salted water for 20 minutes, then drain.

  2. Pour the tomato sauce over the noodles.

  3. Grate cheese on top.

  4. Place the dish in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes.

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. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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

Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure so the noodles hold their shape when cooked.
Flour
Forms the stiff dough whose gluten network gives the noodles their chew and structure.
Tomatoes
Provide the main body, moisture and acidity of the sauce.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma to the tomato sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, rounding out the acidity of the tomatoes.
Cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savory flavor and a golden crust.

The step that matters

Rolling the dough very thin. Thin dough cooks through quickly and stays tender, while thick dough stays dense and gummy in the center. Because the dough is very stiff, it needs to be rolled evenly so the noodles cook at the same rate.

Swap the onion

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

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

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