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Macaroni, Leghorn

A baked macaroni dish with béchamel, Parmesan, and tomato puree.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and parmesan cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Macaroni, Leghorn

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Boil macaroni in boiling water with salt and butter until soft, then drain.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, add butter gradually while shaking until melted.

  2. Stir in Parmesan cheese and white sauce until thick and creamy.

Assemble and serve

  1. Layer macaroni and tomato puree in a dish, with macaroni on top and bottom.

  2. Serve 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. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Parmesan cheese + tomatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,490 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sauce + tomatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Parmesan cheese + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

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

Macaroni
Forms the bulk of the dish and gives it a firm, chewy structure once cooked.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory depth and helps the sauce turn thick and creamy.
White sauce (béchamel)
Provides a smooth, creamy base that binds the cheese into the sauce.
Tomato puree
Adds moisture and bright, acidic tomato flavor between the pasta layers.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and giving a smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Cooking the macaroni until soft. Pasta cooked past tender keeps softening in the dish, so it can turn mushy. Draining it well also keeps excess water from thinning the layered sauce.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Tomatothe original
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Onionfits less well
  4. Potatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parmesan cheese, 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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