Yesterday was one of those rare days when I had nothing to do. A friend who was coming to stay with us last night ended up changing his plans, and since I had requested the day off from work anyway, I ended up with the afternoon and evening free. With the luxury of time, I decided to try my hand at Thomas Keller's soffritto recipe from the Ad Hoc Cookbook. It's a great book filled with tons of practical recipes that you can actually make at home, but many of them take a lot of time to do them justice. It seemed like the perfect opportunity, and one that wouldn't likely come again anytime soon.
A soffritto is any combination of slowly fried vegetables commonly used in Italian and Latin American cooking. The most basic recipe includes onions and olive oil, but tomatoes seem to be a common theme as well. Many Latin American soffrittos also include peppers, both sweet and spicy, as well as a variety of other seasonings. Italian versions are often made with celery and carrots in addition to onions. I had some carrots and a little ginger root in the fridge, so I thought, why not? It's a common enough flavor combination that always yields delicious results.
The trick to a proper soffritto is to cook the veggies in a little bit of oil at as low a heat as possible for a really long time on the stove top. Keller's recipe suggests five hours! The vegetables eventually give up their water in the the bath of slowly simmering oil, becoming more concentrated. After several hours, they caramelize and form a richly flavored paste. Keller suggests making a big batch of it and freezing it or keeping it in the fridge for use over the course of a week. The depth of flavor that it added to my risotto was remarkable. Read on for the recipe...
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