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Macaroni a L'espagnole

A macaroni dish cooked with Madeira sauce, tomato sauce, Parmesan cheese, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Macaroni a L'espagnole

Ingredients

Directions

Make the macaroni

  1. Boil the macaroni until tender, then drain it and return it to the pot.

  2. Add the Madeira and tomato sauces, stir in the grated cheese, and season with salt and pepper. Mix everything thoroughly.

  3. Cook over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

Serve

  1. Transfer to a serving dish.

  2. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

  3. 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the starchy base that carries the sauce and gives the dish its body.
Madeira sauce
Adds a rich, sweet, wine-like flavour to the pasta.
Tomato sauce
Adds moisture and acidity that coat the pasta and balance the richness.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty depth and helps the sauce cling to the pasta.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat while stirring constantly. Gentle heat and constant stirring keep the cheese from clumping or scorching on the pot bottom, so the sauce stays smooth and evenly coats the pasta.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Basilfits better
  2. Oreganofits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

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