Soffritto is a simple but effective Italian cooking technique used as a first step to add flavor to soups, stews, pasta sauces, casseroles, and many other Italian dishes.
You can make Italian soffritto by gently cooking chopped onion, celery, carrot, and sometimes garlic in extra virgin olive oil to allow the veggies to release their flavors slowly.
Different world cuisines have different types of flavor bases to build flavor from the ground up. Here, we’ll first focus on traditional Italian soffritto and then explore some variations.
Table of Contents
Dietary Note: this recipe is suitable for a vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free diet.
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What is Italian Soffritto?
Soffritto is a flavor base used in Italy and other Mediterranean countries like France (Mirepoix), Spain (Sofrito), and Portugal (Sofrito) to add flavor to sauces, soups, stews, casseroles, and many other dishes.
Knowing how to make an excellent Italian soffritto is a game changer in your kitchen because it’s the most effective way to add depth of flavor to a dish from the ground up with simple pantry staples.
In Italian cuisine, soffritto is made by gently cooking one or two parts onion, one part celery, and one part carrot in extra virgin olive oil.
The vegetables should be finely chopped with a sharp knife or a mezzaluna.
They should cook slowly, without browning or caramelizing, until they become soft and translucent and release their sweet flavor.
Can you add other vegetables?
Depending on the dish, you can add leek, tomato paste, shallots, garlic, bell peppers, tomatoes, ginger, or sturdy herbs like sage, rosemary, and bay leaves.
If you add basil or parsley, like in spaghetti aglio olio, do so at the end, never at the start, as they are delicate herbs and will lose their flavor if they cook for too long.
Or you can omit some ingredients and make soffritto with onion, garlic, and chili, like in a classic marinara sauce, or with just garlic and chili, like in arrabbiata sauce.
You’ll love soffritto because you can use it in most recipes once you get the hang of it.
Think of Italian dishes like lentil soup and lentil bolognese or Tuscan white bean soup, pasta e fagioli, and red lentil soup.
You can use it to level up your holiday meals in a flavorful vegetarian stuffing and festive Mushroom Wellington or as a flavor base for lentil loaf and stuffed butternut squash.
Soffritto around the world
But soffritto, as in the technique of building flavor from the ground up, goes way beyond Mediterranean cooking.
It’s an established technique in all of the best world cuisines.
In Indian cooking, for instance, most dishes start with a flavor base of onion, ginger, and garlic cooked in oil or ghee. Spices like cumin seeds and coriander are often added for aroma.
You can see this in practice in our lentil curry, chickpea curry, chana masala, and vegan tikka masala.
In North African cooking, they do the same. Harira soup and Moroccan lentil soup start with a soffritto of onion, celery, and garlic.
In Moroccan chickpea stew, spicy harissa is added to the mix, and in African peanut stew, ginger, and cumin make up the flavor base, along with onion and garlic.
On the other side of the ocean, in Creole and Cajun cooking, and down to central and South American cuisine, sofrito with celery, onion, and bell pepper is so important that it is often referred to as the holy trinity.
You can try this in our lentil chili and sweet potato chili, also adding garlic and cumin. It’s a beautiful combination of flavors.
And to the east, the Chinese make a delicious flavor base with scallion, ginger, and garlic.
Try this in our tofu stir fry, braised tofu, and kung pao tofu.
But now that you have learned how important this simple cooking technique is, let’s see how to put this into practice with our step-by-step guide.
Ingredients & Substitutions for Soffritto
Quantities are in the recipe box at the bottom of the page.
Extra virgin olive oil
Our rule of thumb when cooking with oil is to use the best oil you can afford.
In most cases, this is a good quality extra virgin olive oil.
Extra virgin olive oil is the best choice for Italian soffritto because its high polyphenol content keeps it stable at high temperatures.
As a result, extra virgin olive oil won’t burn and won’t produce toxic compounds that other oils produce despite their higher smoke point.
Substitute virgin olive oil, regular olive oil, or avocado oil for extra virgin olive oil.
In Indian cooking, you can use mustard oil or a neutral vegetable oil if you prefer, but olive oil works perfectly well, too.
Butter, lard, guanciale, pancetta, prosciutto, or ghee is sometimes used instead of oil.
Onion
You can use white onion, yellow onion, or red onion.
Substitute shallot, leek, green onions, and scallions for onion.
In some cases, like our Tuscan soup, you might use both onion and leek.
Carrot
Carrots are a vital ingredient in Italian soffritto and French mirepoix.
Depending on the cuisine and recipe, you can substitute bell peppers for carrots.
Celery
Another key ingredient, celery, is almost always used in Mediterranean-style soffritto.
Substitute celery root for celery.
Garlic (optional)
Garlic is optional, depending on the recipe.
In some cuisines, like Indian and Asian, garlic is often paired with ginger.
Salt
A pinch of sea salt helps soften the vegetables and brings out their flavor.
How to Make Soffritto
US cups + grams measurements in the recipe box at the bottom of the page.
Tip: try to chop the vegetables into small dice of similar size. Alternatively, pulse them together in a food processor until finely chopped. Don’t overprocess them, though, or they’ll become a mash.
Remember that hand-chopped vegetables will have a better texture than processed vegetables.
1. Chop the vegetables
Rinse, peel, and chop the carrot into sticks with a sharp knife, then cut it into small dice.
Rinse and chop the celery into sticks, then cut it into small dice.
Peel the onion, cut it in half, and then finely chop it into small dice.
2. Cook the vegetables
Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a large pan, skillet, or pot, then add the chopped vegetables and a pinch of salt.
Cook gently on medium to medium-low heat for 5 to 20 minutes, depending on how much time you have. Stir often with a wooden spoon.
The longer the vegetables cook, the more flavor they release.
The vegetables should not brown or caramelize. They should slowly become tender and translucent, releasing their sweetness.
Recipes with Soffritto
Soffritto for soups
- Lentil vegetable soup
- Chickpea soup
- Curry lentil soup
- Black bean soup
- Cauliflower soup
- Turkish lentil soup
- Carrot ginger soup
- Sweet potato soup
For more ideas, have a peek at our 20+ best soup recipes.
Soffritto for sauces
Soffritto for stews
Soffritto for risotto
Soffritto for curries
For more Indian-inspired ideas, check out our best Indian vegetarian recipes.
Soffritto for Asian food
Soffritto for Holiday Meals
Tips
- Use the best oil you can afford; we recommend extra virgin olive oil, regular olive oil, or avocado oil for the healthiest soffritto.
- Don’t burn the oil. Keep the heat on medium to medium-low. Add the vegetables as soon as the oil starts to warm up. Don’t wait for it to smoke!
- Avoid browning or caramelizing the vegetables. For soffritto, the vegetables should cook slowly, become tender, and release their sweetness without browning.
- Take your time. Try to slow-cook the vegetables for at least 5 minutes so that they have time to build flavor.
- Hand-chop the veggies for the best texture. Pulse them in a food processor if you are short on time.
Questions
Soffriggere is an Italian verb that means to cook slowly in hot oil or fat.
Mirepoix is French, and soffritto is Italian. They are very similar and, in many cases, the same thing. In their basic form, they consist of finely chopped or diced onion, celery, and carrots gently cooked in fat or oil.
Of course, variations of soffritto and mirepoix can make these two recipes more or less similar.
But in essence, they are the same thing: an excellent way to add depth of flavor to many dishes.
Storage & Make Ahead
Make ahead: Soffritto is excellent for meal prep! You can make a big batch of soffritto and freeze it in small portions for later use.
Refrigerator: It keeps in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Freezer: Let the soffritto cool down completely, then portion it before freezing. You can freeze it in an ice cube tray or freezer-friendly baby food containers. It keeps for 3 months.
More cooking basics
- How to cook black lentils
- Guide to cooking chickpeas
- How to cook couscous
- Red lentils and how to cook them
- Seitan cooking basics
Soffritto
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium carrot finely chopped
- 1 rib celery finely chopped
- 1 medium to large onion finely chopped
- ¼ teaspoon salt optional
Instructions
- Rinse, peel, and chop 1 medium carrot into sticks with a sharp knife, then cut it into small dice.
- Rinse and chop 1 rib celery into sticks, then cut it into small dice.
- Peel 1 medium to large onion, cut it in half, and then finely chop it into small dice.
- Heat 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil in a large pan, skillet, or pot, then add the chopped vegetables and ¼ teaspoon salt.
- Cook gently on medium to medium-low heat for 5 to 20 minutes, depending on how much time you have. Stir often with a wooden spoon.The longer the vegetables cook, the more flavor they release.
- The vegetables should not brown or caramelize. They should slowly become tender and translucent, releasing their sweetness.Use soffritto as a flavor base for other preparations. For ideas, see "Recipes with Soffritto" chapter linked in the notes below.
Notes
Nutrition
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can this be done without oil substituting vegetable broth? I try to be sugar oil salt (SOS) free and adapt as many of your recipes as possible. Thank you
Hi Wendy, yes you can substitute vegetable broth or water.
This, of course, will not create the same flavor base because its oil-free but we have tested with various soups and curries, and it works ๐
I hope that helps – let me know!
Kindest, Louise