Why We Always Freeze Sofrito—and Why You’ll Want to Now Too
We always want to eat delicious food. But standing in the kitchen for hours every day just isn’t possible when you’re trying to keep all the balls of life in the air. That’s one of the reasons why we freeze our sofrito, for example.
Sofrito is the essential base for countless dishes from Spain, Italy, Portugal and Latin America. It’s simply a sauce packed with flavor makers. With sofrito as your base, you’re already ten points ahead in the flavor department. In Mediterranean and Latin American cuisines, they simply can’t—and don’t want to—do without sofrito.
Flavor bombs
So yes, lots of flavor. You’ll find garlic, onion and tomato in virtually every sofrito. Herbs vary quite a bit. It can really be anything, from parsley to basil and from cilantro to bay leaf. Sometimes a chili pepper is added too, and occasionally there’s also some bell pepper. The point is that it’s a flavorful base sauce for your dish.
All the ingredients are finely chopped and sautéed. Sauté them for at least ten minutes: that way, the flavors really infuse. Before long, your kitchen will fill with delicious aromas.
Freezing sofrito: a brilliant idea
Making sofrito isn’t difficult; it just takes time. I’m mainly talking about the chopping and sautéing. You don’t always have that time—or always want to spend it. That’s why freezing sofrito is ideal. You’ll always have portions on hand. Ideal, right?
So make a larger batch of sofrito once, using whatever ingredients you like. Let it cool, then divide it among an ice cube tray. If you don’t have one: you can simply get one at Action, Xenos or HEMA. Fill the ice cube tray with the cooled sofrito and place it in the freezer. When you need one or more cubes, take out as many as you want. Easy: there’s no need to thaw them. You can simply put the cubes in a pan with hot oil.
You can freeze larger portions too, of course, but we find smaller ‘sofrito ice cubes’ especially convenient. That way, you can measure out portions very easily.
Also read:
