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Soffritto

Name: Soffritto
Prep time: 20 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: Makes enough for a sauce that serves 4
Cuisine: Italian recipes
Ingredients: 2 onions; 1 carrot; 1 celery stick; 2 tbsp olive oil or a knob of unsalted butter

By: Tom Shingler
Head of food, delicious.

Published: 9 May 23
Updated: 18 Mar 24

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.

Discover our favourite Italian recipes here.

Easy
May 2023

Test kitchen approved

Makes enough for a sauce that serves 4
Hands-on time 20 mins

Discover our favourite Italian recipes here.

Nutrition: per serving

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

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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

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.
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.

Recipe from May 2023 Issue

Nutrition

Nutrition: per serving

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

delicious. tips

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