Name: Pressed Eggplant and Pepper Sandwich Recipe
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: With a zester or cheese grater, remove the zest from one orange (navel, juice or temple orange, or a tangerine) squeeze the juice from the remaining fruit and set aside.; 3 tablespoons olive oil; 5 teaspoons red wine vinegar; 2 medium garlic cloves, minced; 2 teaspoons kosher salt; 1 1/2 teaspoons packed, finely grated orange zest; 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes; 2 medium bell peppers, ends trimmed, "seeds and stems removed,":http://www.chow.com/stories/11524 and cut into 4 pieces; 2 medium globe eggplants, sliced crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick pieces; 4 ounces chèvre (goat cheese), crumbled; or Swiss, Gruyere or Provolone, sliced; 1 loaf ciabatta, sliced in half horizontally; 3 cups baby spinach

Why it works: Olive and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,665 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

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.

Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Clove + orangetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,987 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Olive + orangetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,456 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, olive, red wine, vinegar, garlic, clove, pepper):

Plumfits better
Limefits better
Cherryfits better
Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, olive, red wine, vinegar, garlic, clove, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Cheese	1 oz (28g) cheddar	113
Gruyere Cheese	1 oz (28g) cheddar	113
Goat Cheese	1 oz (28g)	103
Provolone Cheese	1 oz (28g)	100
Orange	1 medium (131g)	62
Eggplant	1 cup cubed (82g)	35
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Spinach	1 cup raw (30g)	7
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Tangerine	not in our table	0
Fruit	not in our table	0
Seed	not in our table	0

Pressed Eggplant and Pepper Sandwich Recipe