Skip to main content
Main

Italian Spaghetti

A pasta dish of spaghetti topped with a tomato and beef gravy sauce, finished with cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Italian Spaghetti

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine tomatoes, roast beef gravy, salt, paprika, thyme, allspice, garlic, and mushroom liquid.

  2. Let the sauce simmer until well combined.

  3. Add mushrooms and claret to the sauce, and simmer for a few more minutes.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook spaghetti in boiling salted water until al dente.

  2. Pour the sauce over the spaghetti just before serving.

  3. Sprinkle with grated cheese before serving.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Thyme + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Thyme + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,608 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main body, acidity and fresh tomato flavour of the sauce.
Roast beef gravy
Adds savoury depth and body to the sauce.
Claret
Adds acidity and wine flavour as the sauce simmers.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and a soft, meaty texture to the sauce.
Imported spaghetti
Forms the base that the sauce clings to.

The step that matters

Simmering the sauce until well combined. Simmering lets the flavours of the tomatoes, gravy, garlic and spices blend and mellow, while the wine is still raw if not cooked long enough. Keeping the heat gentle prevents scorching and thickening too fast on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, beef, thyme, clove, garlic, mushroom, cheese):

  1. Oreganofits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, beef, thyme, clove, garlic, mushroom, 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipes