Why it works: Endive and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 111 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Italian Ravioli
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Wash and pick the leaves of white beet or endive, then boil them in a small amount of water.
Once cooked, squeeze out the water and chop the leaves finely, similar to spinach.
Mix the chopped leaves with half the quantity of firm curd, an egg for each pound of mixture, and grated Parmesan cheese.
Add enough grated bread to form the mixture into long oval shapes, each about the size of an egg.
Shape and cook
Season the mixture well, then roll the shapes in flour.
Drop the ravioli into salted boiling water and let them cook until they rise to the surface.
Serve
Serve with a good gravy sauce or melted butter.
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.
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Endive + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together111 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Parmesan cheese + breadtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together577 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Endive + breadtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together39 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- White beet or endive leaves
- Provides the bulk of the filling and a mild, slightly bitter green flavour.
- Firm curd
- Adds body and moisture to the filling, helping it hold together.
- Egg
- Binds the filling so the shapes keep their form during cooking.
- Grated bread
- Absorbs excess moisture so the mixture can be shaped without falling apart.
- Grated parmesan cheese
- Adds salty, savoury flavour and helps the filling set slightly.
The step that matters
Squeeze out the water from the cooked leaves. Excess water makes the mixture too wet to shape and can dilute the flavour. Removing it lets the grated bread bind the filling into shapes that hold their form in boiling water.
Swap the endive
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, parmesan cheese, bread, flour):
- Asparagusfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Chivefits better
- Endivethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, parmesan cheese, bread, flour. 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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