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On their own, carrots onion and celery may shy away from your attention. But lightly fry the chopped trio in a pan with extra virgin olive oil and you’ll create a godly food foundation.
In Italian cuisine, these three vegetables combine to create the 'holy trinity' of flavour, otherwise referred to as sofrito.
Italian-born , chef-in-residence for (CPC) at The University of Sydney, explains that sofrito is an integral part of Italy's food culture.
“Sofrito was a big part of the dishes I ate daily growing up in Italy,” Lanzini tells SBS. “It was the basis of lots of braises, loads of risottos and so on. We always used one part onion, one part carrot and half part celery to make it. From a cultural point of view, sofrito is second nature to me.”
But it wasn’t until Lanzini left Italy and worked throughout Europe as a chef that he realised how essential the lightly fried vegetable mixture was to many other cuisines as well.
“Every country has its own version of sofrito that forms the flavour foundations of its cuisine. For example, I worked as a chef in Spain and experienced how sofrito is a huge part of Catalan cuisine as well."
The French use the same ingredients for ‘mirepoix’ as the basis of many meals, while variations of sofrito (with garlic, tomatoes or capsicum) are common across Latin America and Portugal.
Every country has its own version of sofrito that forms the flavour foundation of its cuisine.
“Sofrito is popular in cuisines across the world because it works,” says Lanzini.
Rodney Dunn of in Tasmania demonstrates the flavour versatility of sofrito by making a chickpea sofrito during an episode of Instead of using celery, Dunn’s recipe includes fennel and silverbeet.
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Chickpea sofrito
Why is sofrito so essential?
So what’s behind the taste bomb that is sofrito? The ingredients used to make sofrito are called aromatics, meaning they provide aroma when cooked.
“The mouth only perceives five tastes, but the nose perceives millions of different scents,” explains Lanzini, who uses his role at CPC to teach chronic disease patients how to cook flavoursome and nutritious food.
“That’s why we use aromatic vegetables to create flavour. They provide a lot of aromas that our nose perceives, which adds to our perception of flavour. ”
Lanzini explains that the aromas and flavours of these vegetables become more pronounced when lightly fried to the point of translucency. “The carrot and onion get a bit sweeter while the celery flavour becomes more subtle."
They provide a lot of aromas that our nose perceives, which adds to our perception of flavour.
Once you add other ingredients to your pan on top of the sofrito, the flavour starts to build. “You may add meat and red wine. Red wine has a lot of tannins, which are normally quite sour. But the sweetness of the carrot in the sofrito will help to counter counterbalance that sourness.
“By the time you finish cooking your dish, you won’t taste carrot, celery or onion. Instead, the flavour of all of the ingredients should come together to provide a balanced taste.”
Don't forget the olive oil
It's not just the vegetables that make sofrito what it is. Dunn says that by using lots of extra virgin olive oil in a sofrito, you can create the basis of a beautiful sauce.
“I'd implore that if people make this sofrito, that they don’t skimp on [olive oil], because it forms part of the sauce,” Dunn says on The Cook Up With Adam Liaw. “You can see how this tomato paste thickens it up [because of it].
I'd implore that if people make this sofrito, that they don’t skimp on [olive oil], because it forms like part of the sauce.
According to research, the use of extra virgin olive in a sofrito may enhance its health benefits.
show that bioactive compounds like carotenoids and polyphenols can move from the aromatic vegetables used in a sofrito to the extra virgin olive oil (which may fuse with the vegetables to become the dish's sauce). This process releases at least and high levels of carotenoids. When consumed, these compounds could benefit our heart health and insulin sensitivity.
“When you look at the inclusion of sofrito in a traditional Italian dish like osso buco, you see that the proportion of sofrito to meat is pretty decent,” adds Lanzini. “You end up having about half as many vegetables on your plate as you do meat.
“So you know that just by cooking a sofrito, you’ll be sure to increase the flavour of a meal and your daily vegetable intake.”
