soffritto

American

[soh-free-toh, sawf-freet-taw] / soʊˈfri toʊ, sɔfˈfrit tɔ /

noun

Also called battuto. Italian Cooking. a base for stews and soups, consisting of hot oil, butter, or fat in which a chopped onion or crushed garlic clove has been browned, often with the addition of chopped parsley, celery, and carrot.
(in Spanish, Latin American, and Caribbean cooking) sofrito.

Etymology

Origin of soffritto

First recorded in 1910–15; from Italian, past participle of soffriggere; suf-, fry ¹

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Aromatics are where things begin: ginger, garlic, onions and their cousins; the soft clatter of mirepoix or soffritto; a bloom of spices warming in fat.

From Salon

Mirepoix that you’ve cooked down into a jammy little soffritto.

From Salon

The Italian methodology always sounds beautiful and is an excellent roadmap: soffritto, tostare, sfumatura, brodo/cottura and mantecura.

From Salon

She then cooks the soffritto for a long time—almost 40 minutes to build flavor and have the texture of the vegetables almost disappear in the dish—and I decided I'd give congrí another try.

From Salon

Add the onion, carrot and celery — the soffritto — and cook slowly over medium-low heat, stirring frequently enough so the soffritto doesn’t brown — until the onion is soft, translucent and pale gold, about 15 minutes.

From Washington Post

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023