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Italian Soup

A hearty soup of ground meat, onions, tomatoes, macaroni, and grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 Soup

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the meat sauce

  1. Cook ground meat and onions in butter until onions are soft.

  2. Add tomatoes, salt, and pepper, and cook slowly for 1 hour.

Cook pasta and assemble

  1. Cook macaroni in salted water until tender.

  2. Layer meat mixture, macaroni, and grated cheese in a dish, repeating the layers.

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ground meat
Provides the savory base and body of the sauce as it browns.
Onions
Soften and turn sweet, adding depth to the meat mixture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the onions cook without sticking.
Tomatoes
Supply moisture and acidity that thicken into a rich sauce during slow cooking.
Macaroni
Adds bulk and a tender starchy structure between the meat layers.
Grated cheese
Melts into the layers, adding savory flavor and a binding richness.

The step that matters

Cook the tomatoes slowly. A gentle simmer lets moisture evaporate gradually, so the sauce thickens and its flavors concentrate without scorching on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, butter, tomato, pepper, 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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