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Soffritto

Picture
Soffritto is the foundation of a lot of Tuscan sauces, soups and other dishes. Soffritto is carefully prepared over a low heat, to bring out the sweetness of the ingredients, which normally include: olive oil, water or wine, onion, garlic, carrot, celery, salt and pepper.
There are many variations of a soffritto, this depends on what the other ingredients of the dish will include.
In Italian soffritto means, slowly fried. It comes from the verb soffriggere, to fry
slowly.


Ingredients for a basic soffritto mix:
1 medium onion, chopped finely
1 medium carrot, chopped finely
2 sticks of celery, chopped finely
1 clove of garlic, chopped finely
1 sprig of rosemary, chopped finely
2 bay leaves
Ground black pepper
100ml/3 ½fl oz extra virgin olive oil

Method
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the onion, carrot and celery with a good grinding of black pepper and then add the herbs and the garlic. Fry on a low heat for 15-20 mins. This is the basis of a soffritto, now you can add the other ingredients depending which dish you are making.

© cookandchat.com, Fiona Fisher, Rodney Fisher 2011