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Stewed Macaroni a LA Turque

A stewed macaroni dish with tomatoes, butter, sugar, paprika, nuts, stock, and grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stewed Macaroni a LA Turque

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Break the macaroni into two-inch lengths.

  2. Boil the macaroni in salted water for 20 minutes or until clear.

  3. Drain the macaroni and rinse it in cold water.

  4. Spread the macaroni on a dish to cool, separating the tubes.

Make the tomato sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine the tomatoes, butter, sugar, paprika, and salt.

  2. Cook the tomato mixture until heated through.

  3. Stir in the pine nuts or almonds.

  4. Cook for 5 minutes after boiling.

  5. Add the consommé or stock and the macaroni.

  6. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil.

  7. Remove from heat and serve.

  8. Serve with grated cheese.

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

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

  2. Tomato + pinetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together323 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Tomato + cheesetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,896 recipes

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

  4. Butter + pinetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together358 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the body of the dish, giving it its bulk and chewy texture.
Stewed tomatoes
Provide the main liquid and bright acidic flavor of the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, rounding out the tomato sauce.
Pine nuts or almonds
Add a toasty, nutty crunch and extra richness to the sauce.

The step that matters

Rinsing and separating the macaroni after boiling. Rinsing in cold water stops the pasta from cooking further and washing off surface starch, while spreading it out keeps the tubes from sticking together into a clump.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, pine, 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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