Soffritto

Ever heard of soffritto? It's the base of Italian cooking. What do I mean with that? You start every main dish with soffritto: meat dishes, soups, stews, pasta sauces... I am surprised that is not very well known in North America. Anyways, it's super easy and you only need three magic ingredients: 1 carrot, 1 celery stalk and 1 onion. They are sauteed together to provide a flavor base for other ingredients to build upon. These ingredients are usually cooked in either butter or olive oil to release their flavours. Soffritto means fried slowly, with slowly being the key word.

Try starting your dishes with soffritto and you'll definitely taste the difference.

Recipe for soffritto:

1 onion (I usually use yellow but you can use red onion too)

1 medium carrot

1 celery stalk

extra virgin olive oil

Chop your vegetables very finely or blend in a food processor. Heat up some extra virgin olive oil in a non stick frying pan on medium heat. Pour your chopped vegetables in and allow them to slowly fry for 10-15 minutes. Once the onion is translucent, that means your soffritto is ready.

Use it as base for your pasta sauces, stews, ragù, soups...

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Tips:

I don't recommend using white onion as the flavour is too powerful.

If you wish, you can chop these three vegetables in advance and freeze them in a plastic bag.