Name: Spicy Tomato and Chorizo Pasta
Yield: Serves 2
Ingredients: 1 tbsp olive oil; 1 medium onion, finely diced; 100g chorizo, diced; 2 tsp chopped rosemary; 1 red chilli, diced; 500g passata; 150g of dried penne/rigatoni; 50g mascarpone; 1 squeeze of lemon juice; grated parmesan

Why it works: Rosemary and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 845 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. 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.

Rosemary + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together845 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Olive + rosemarytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,590 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,922 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Olive + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,779 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Onion + rosemarytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,885 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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 (olive, rosemary, lemon):

Kalefits better
Eggplantfits better
Tomatofits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, rosemary, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Mascarpone	2 tbsp (28g)	120
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Parmesan Cheese	1 oz (28g)	110
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Rosemary	1 tsp dried (1.2g)	4

Spicy Tomato and Chorizo Pasta