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Italian Macaroni

A quick pasta dish of spaghetti mixed with butter, cheese, and tomato soup, seasoned with salt, cayenne, and Tabasco.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Italian Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the spaghetti

  1. Boil the spaghetti in salted water until tender.

  2. Drain the spaghetti.

  3. Cut the drained spaghetti into small pieces.

  4. Keep the spaghetti hot in a pan.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In another pan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the grated cheese and tomato soup to the melted butter, stirring until combined.

  3. Add the hot spaghetti to the mixture and season with salt, cayenne, and Tabasco sauce.

  4. Stir until thickened and serve very 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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cheese + tomatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,896 recipes

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

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Spaghetti
Forms the bulk of the dish and gives it a chewy, substantial texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the sauce feel smooth and coat the pasta.
Grated cheese
Melts into the sauce, adding savoriness and a creamy, binding texture.
Tomato soup
Provides the liquid base, acidity and sweetness that form the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir until thickened. Cheese and condensed soup can turn grainy or separate if overheated. Gentle medium heat and steady stirring let the cheese melt evenly into a smooth, thickened sauce.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cheese, pepper, sauce. 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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