Soffritto

  • Portion size: Makes enough for a sauce that serves 4
  • Hands-on time 20 mins
  • Difficulty: easy
Head of food, delicious.

Italian soffritto is a trio of finely chopped vegetables softened in oil or butter and used as the base for many a ragù, risotto and sauce. The combination of onion, celery and carrot provides a rounded, flavourful base foundation of depth and sweetness. It’s a common sight throughout all European cooking and an absolute must to master for any home cook.

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Ingredients

  • 2 onions
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 celery stick
  • 2 tbsp olive oil or a knob of unsalted butter
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Method

  1. Peel the onions and carrot. Finely chop them – take your time and don’t rush it; you want each piece to be of the same size and ideally no bigger than 5mm  if you’re looking to use the soffritto as a base for a sauce. Chop the celery in the same way.
  2. Add the olive oil or butter to a saucepan over a low-medium heat. Add the vegetables with a pinch of salt and cook, stirring occasionally, for around 15 minutes, or until the vegetables are very soft but not browned. The soffritto is now ready to be incorporated into your chosen recipe.
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  • Nutrition

    • 102kcals Calories
    • 6.5g (0.9g saturated) Fat
    • 1g Protein
    • 8.6g (6.9g sugars) Carbs
    • 3g Fibre
    • 0.2g Salt

    Make Ahead

    You can cook up large batches of soffritto, then freeze it into portions for future dishes to save time.

    Cook smarter

    Italian soffritto is different to Spanish sofrito, which generally includes tomatoes and is more akin to passata. Before the soffritto is cooked, it’s known as battuto. The word soffritto refers to the cooking process; battuto is the mixture of finely minced vegetables.

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