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Macaroni and Tomatoes

A simple pasta dish with boiled macaroni, tomato sauce, butter, onion, and grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Macaroni and Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the macaroni

  1. Break the macaroni into fine pieces.

  2. Cover with boiling water and add a pinch of salt.

  3. Boil for twenty minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. In a separate pot, prepare the canned tomatoes with the butter and grated onion.

  2. Strain the macaroni and add it to the tomatoes.

  3. Let the mixture simmer.

Serve

  1. Transfer to a hot dish.

  2. Sprinkle with grated cheese.

  3. 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. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Tomato + cheesetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,896 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Onion + cheesetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,849 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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the body of the dish and soaks up the tomato sauce.
Canned tomatoes
Provide the main moisture and acidity that flavour the dish.
Butter
Adds fat and richness that gives the sauce a smoother mouthfeel.
Onion
Contributes aroma and savoury sweetness as it cooks into the sauce.
Cheese
Adds salty, savoury flavour to the finished dish.

The step that matters

Boil for twenty minutes. Pasta keeps absorbing water and softening while it boils. Cooking it too long makes it mushy, so it should be drained once tender.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, onion, cheese. 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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