Soffrito, a Slow-cooked Spanish Flavor Bomb

Soffrito is the base for a lot of Spanish dishes, such as paella. It consists of sweet peppers and onion, slow cooked until sweet and seasoned with garlic and tomato. I keep a container frozen in my freezer that i can scoop out of when I need a tablespoon or two.

You can finely mince your vegetables, or use a food processor. I prefer to process them, as it gets them into smaller pieces much faster. Smaller pieces = more surface area = faster cooking. Cooking the vegetables in a lot of olive oil for a long time releases their sweetness through caramelization. It takes close to an hour, but its worth the flavor, I promise.

I choose not to include salt in this recipe, because I do not like using many sodium-containing ingredients, If it is salted well, it may interfere with the amount of salt in the dish I prepare later.

The Recipe:

• 2 yellow onions

• 4 oz shallots

• 4 cloves of garlic

• 1 tablespoon tomato paste

• 4-6 oz olive oil

Finely dice all the vegetables with a knife or in a food processor, Preheat olive oil and add veggies, cooking until most of the excess water is released, 8-10 minutes. Reduce heat to low, deglazing as necessary with a small amount of water, for around 45 minutes, stirring semi-regularly. Onions will be soft and light brown, and it will be very sweet to the taste, despite having no added sugar. Add tomato paste and fry for 1-2 minutes, and freeze in ice cube sized amounts. Use it when onions and peppers are used to add complexity. I usually use it in 2-tablespoon (30mL) amounts. Good in pasta sauces, stews, and stirred into rice dishes.