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Macaroni Italiana

A macaroni dish with beef, salt pork, herbs, tomatoes, mushrooms, and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Macaroni Italiana

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Fry the chopped salt pork in olive oil and butter until browned.

  2. Add the onion and chopped herbs, stirring constantly while frying.

  3. Add the rump beef and cook for 30 minutes, turning until browned.

  4. Stir in the chopped tomatoes, soaked mushrooms, garlic, and water.

  5. Season with salt and pepper, then cook slowly for 2 hours.

  6. Remove the meat from the sauce.

Assemble and serve

  1. Cook the macaroni in boiling salted water for about 20 minutes, then drain.

  2. Layer the macaroni on a platter with the sauce and grated cheese, finishing with a thick layer of sauce on top.

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

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

  2. Pork + beeftop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  3. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Olive + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,571 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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

Rump beef
Provides the meat that becomes tender and flavorful as it simmers in the sauce.
Italian macaroni
Forms the starchy base of the dish that holds the sauce in layers.
Tomatoes
Supply acidity and body, helping build the sauce's liquid and savory flavor.
Dried mushrooms
Add deep, earthy aroma and savory umami to the sauce.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor from the first browning step.
Grated cheese
Adds salty, savory richness and helps bind the layers together.

The step that matters

Cooking the sauce slowly for 2 hours. A gentle, long simmer lets the tough rump beef break down and become tender while the sauce reduces and concentrates. Too fast a boil can toughen the meat and scorch the sauce on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, egg, olive, butter, beef, tomato, mushroom):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, egg, olive, butter, beef, tomato, mushroom. 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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