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Meatballs with Spaghetti

Cookery and wine writer, Fiona Beckett, shares one of her family's favourite recipes

By bbcgoodfood · From Open Recipes · 12 ingredients
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Meatballs with Spaghetti

Why it works: Garlic and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,076 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Meatballs with Spaghetti

Serves 6
Prep30 min
Cook45 min

Ingredients

Directions

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

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1554Calories
74 gProtein
84 gFat
124 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Sausage100g cooked301
Beef100g cooked250
Sunflower1 oz (28g) hulled165
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Parmesan Cheese1 oz (28g)110
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1

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

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Parsley + sunflowertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together256 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 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

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, garlic, parsley, egg, flour, sunflower, tomato):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, garlic, parsley, egg, flour, sunflower, tomato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.