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Baked Pasta with Tomatoes & Mozzarella

This pasta dish is loved all over Italy. It is eaten by families at gatherings or celebrations and is also something the monks I visited at the Abbazia di Farfa, just outside Rome, have every Sunday as a special lunch. I'm pleased to say my faith in this dish has been restored, as I did fall out of love with it (as a result of trying to cook it in schools on a tight budget, using the cheapest pasta in the world). When I was in Altamura, in Puglia, I visited a school where they were eating baked pasta for their school lunch, bizarrely enough! However, Italian government laws state that the schools must use organic pasta and extra virgin olive oil, and they also had freshly made mozzarella! When made properly like this, it's absolutely delicious. This was the recipe that was made for 1,000 kids at the school I visited and it was very, very good.

By jamieoliver · From Open Recipes · 12 ingredients
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Baked Pasta with Tomatoes & Mozzarella

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Baked Pasta with Tomatoes & Mozzarella

Serves 4

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

424Calories
20 gProtein
28 gFat
27 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Parmesan Cheese1 oz (28g)110
Mozzarella Cheese1 oz (28g)85
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Plum1 medium (66g)30
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Basil5 leaves fresh (2.5g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By jamieoliver. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,979 recipes

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

  4. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Eggplantfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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