Perfect Pairings & Recipes for
Pasta

Top flavour pairings and pasta recipes, revealed through the hidden methmatics of flavour.

Pasta is marked by the unmistakable flavours of wheat and starch, yet its initial sweetness is only the opening note. Beneath lies a complex tapestry of delicate malt, hay, and the warm aroma of toast, contributing remarkable depth. Understanding how these elements interplay is the secret to unlocking pasta's pairing potential.

To illuminate these harmonies, we embarked on an ambitious journey, analysing thousands of ingredients. Each was meticulously deconstructed across 150 distinct flavour dimensions, allowing us to pinpoint precisely which notes complement in both classic and unexpected ways. Our findings reveal, for instance, how sage's salvian tones can awaken pasta, or how herbes de Provence's rosmarinic notes create an unexpectedly harmonious bridge with the grainy sweetness.

An ingredient's flavour profile is determined by its core characteristics (e.g. maillard, earthy, and vegetal) enhanced by layers of subtle aroma notes (outer bars). When pairing ingredients, aim for a mix of core traits to build balance, and select complementary aroma notes to create harmony.

Flavour Pairing Method

To understand how flavour notes harmonise, we analysed more than 50,000 popular ingredient combinations. By exploring these pairings, we identified specific flavour notes that frequently occur together, indicating they share a harmonious relationship.

The Flavours That Harmonise With Wheat Notes

Our analysis shows that the flavour of wheat is strongly associated with the flavour of rosemary. This suggests we should look for ingredients with a rosemary flavour, such as herbes de Provence, when pairing with the wheaty aromas of pasta.

The recipe below provides inspiration for pairing pasta with herbes de Provence.

Harmonious Flavours Of Pasta

Just as our analysis highlighted that wheat and rosemary flavours are harmonious, we can identify the full profile of flavours that harmonise with each of the flavours present in pasta. For instance, the starchy notes of pasta are strongly associated with buttery and milky flavours.

The accents associated with the various accents of pasta can be seen highlighted in the pink bars below.

Matching Flavour Profiles

The flavour profile of sage offers many of the accents complementary to pasta, including sage and rosemary aroma notes. Because the flavour profile of sage has many of the of the features that are complementary to pasta, they are likely to pair very well together.

The chart above shows the unique profile of sage across 150 dimensions of flavour, while the recipes below offer inspiration for bringing these flavours together with pasta.

Recipes That Pair Pasta With Sage

Linked Flavour Notes

Looking at the aroma accents that are most strongly associated with the various flavours of pasta, we can identify other ingredients that are likely to pair well.

The left side of the chart above highlights the aroma notes of pasta, along with the complementary aromas associated with each note. While the right side shows some of the ingredients that share many of the notes complementary to pasta.

What To Drink With Pasta

The rosemary notes in pays d’oc make it a perfect pairing with pasta. Likewise, the rosemary flavours in grignan-les-adhemar create a match made in heaven. Explore a variety of ingredients below that beautifully complement the unique character of pasta below.

Which Cheese Go With Pasta?

Choose cheese that enrich its toastiness or enrich its grainy aroma. Pepper Jack offers vibrant, clean counterpoints, its verdant freshness lifting the palate. Cottage cheese add a gentle, oniony brightness, while white cheese introduces a sophisticated, anise-tinged elegance.

Alternatively, embrace cheese that harmonise with pasta's grassiness. The addition of boursin, with its subtle thymic notes, can complement the hay beautifully. Cotija bridges earthiness and citrus zest, while berkswell cheese lends a creamy tanginess.

How Flavonomics Works

We've pioneered a unique, data-driven approach to decode the intricate art of flavour pairing. Our goal is to move beyond intuition and uncover the science of why certain ingredients harmonise beautifully. This rigorous methodology allows us to provide you with insightful and reliable pairing recommendations.

Our analysis begins with over 50,000 carefully selected recipes from acclaimed chefs like Galton Blackiston, Marcello Tully, and Pierre Lambinon. This premium dataset ensures our model distils genuine culinary excellence and creativity.

Each ingredient from these recipes is deconstructed across 150 distinct flavour dimensions, creating a unique numerical "flavour fingerprint." This quantification allows us to apply advanced analytical methods to identify complex patterns between flavour notes.

We identify popular ingredient combinations that frequently appear in our recipe database. Regression analysis is then performed on these pairings to statistically validate and pinpoint truly harmonious flavours.

These insights drive our predictive model, which allows us to take any ingredient (e.g., Pasta), analyse its detailed flavour profile, and accurately reveal its complementary flavours and perfect ingredient partners.