Sofrito
A slow-cooked base of onion, tomato and garlic in olive oil. The starting point for most Spanish rice dishes, stews and sauces.
Sofrito (Catalan: sofregit) is the foundation that holds most of Mediterranean Spanish cooking together. Finely chopped onion goes into olive oil over low heat and cooks down slowly, sometimes for an hour, until it's deep gold and almost jammy. Tomato joins next, then garlic, sometimes a few flakes of paprika or a strip of green pepper. The goal is concentration: the vegetables lose water, intensify in flavour, and become a thick base layer the rest of the dish builds on. Paella, fideuà, escudella, suquet, every Catalan stew worth eating starts here. A rushed sofrito ruins the dish behind it; a long patient one carries the whole plate.
How it's served
Not served on its own, used as the base of another dish. You'll find it under paellas, inside stews, at the bottom of bean dishes, in pasta sauces. The sofrito itself is invisible by the time the dish arrives at the table.
Regional variation
Catalan sofregit tends to cook longer and darker than the Castilian version, sometimes reduced for an hour or more. Valencian paella sofritos add saffron and sweet paprika. The Caribbean and Latin American sofrito (a wet base with bell peppers, cilantro and culantro) shares the name and the function but is structurally a different sauce.
- Origin
- Mediterranean Spain
- Etymology
- From the Spanish sofreír ('to lightly fry'); Catalan sofregit comes from the same root.
- Also called
- sofregit
Where to try it in Barcelona
One restaurant on Guidavera mentions sofrito in their kitchen description.
Frequently asked
What is sofrito?
A slow-cooked base of finely chopped onion, tomato, garlic and olive oil that forms the starting point for most Spanish rice dishes, stews and sauces. Catalan kitchens cook it down for up to an hour until deep gold and jammy. The base is invisible in the finished dish but does most of the flavour work.
What's the difference between sofrito and sofregit?
Same technique, different language. Sofrito is the Castilian Spanish word; sofregit is the Catalan. Catalan sofregit is often cooked longer and reduced further than its Spanish equivalent, producing a darker, more concentrated base.
Is sofrito the same as the Latin American sofrito?
Different sauce, shared name. The Caribbean and Latin American sofrito is a wet, often raw or briefly cooked base of bell peppers, cilantro, culantro, onion and garlic. The Spanish sofrito is a long-cooked dry base of onion and tomato. Both function as a cooking foundation, but the ingredients and texture differ completely.
Related terms
- PaellaValencian rice dish cooked in a wide flat pan over fire. The original is chicken, rabbit, snails and beans, not seafood.
- FideuàA Valencian paella made with short, hollow noodles instead of rice. Comes with allioli on the side.
- PicadaA pounded paste of nuts, garlic, parsley and sometimes fried bread, stirred into a Catalan stew at the end to thicken and finish it.
- Suquet de peixA Catalan fisherman's stew of white fish and potatoes, thickened with an almond-garlic picada.
- FricandóCatalan veal stew of thin-cut steaks slow-braised with wild moixernon mushrooms in a wine-based sauce, finished with a picada.
- Mar i muntanyaCatalan 'sea and mountain' cooking: dishes that combine seafood with meat in the same pot. Chicken with prawns is the canonical example.
- NyoraSmall, round, sun-dried sweet red pepper. The defining ingredient in romesco and a backbone of many Catalan, Valencian and Murcian dishes.
- SamfainaCatalan vegetable stew of onion, aubergine, courgette, pepper and tomato slow-cooked together. Used as a side or as a sauce for bacallà, rabbit and chicken.