Chef Isabel
Aceitunas Aliñadas Andaluzas
Andalucía's green olives are cracked just enough to drink in garlic, cumin, oregano and sherry vinegar, then left two days until the brine turns fragrant and every bite carries the aliño.
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Sofregit Català
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Catalonia's sofregit is onion and tomato cooked patiently in olive oil until dark, sweet, and nearly dry, the quiet foundation beneath arrossos, fideus, legumes, suquets, and slow guisats.
Sauces & Condiments
Spanish
Meal Prep
Batch Cooking
Make Ahead
20 min
Active Time
1 hr 10 min cook•1 hr 30 min total
YieldAbout 450g (roughly 2 cups)
Sofregit is Catalan, the slow onion-and-tomato foundation beneath the region's arrossos, fideus, suquets, legumes, and guisats, its pot stews. What marks it is the order and the depth: onion first, cooked nearly to a dark marmalade, then tomato reduced until no loose water remains. This isn't a sauce for spooning over the finished plate. It belongs underneath, where it gives the whole dish weight.
I keep the pan low and let the onion take its time. That is the one method that decides the result. Slow cooking turns the onion sweet and jammy all the way through; fierce heat only browns its edges and leaves a sharp middle, and the final dish tastes thinner for it. Once the tomato goes in, cook until a spoon drawn through the pan leaves a clean track. Siempre sale, si lo sigues. It turns out if you follow it.
Far from Catalonia, use an ordinary yellow onion in place of ceba de Figueres and good canned whole plum tomatoes when fresh ones smell of nothing. The onion will be a shade less sweet, while canned tomato gives a deeper, less fresh-tasting base and may need a few extra minutes to reduce. Both are honest household substitutions. No hace falta haber pisado España, you don't need to have set foot in Spain. Pésalo, no lo adivines, and trust the clean track across the pan.
The medieval Catalan Llibre de Sent Soví records sofregit as the frying of an aromatic base, long before tomato entered the Catalan larder from the Americas. As tomato settled into the region's cooking, it joined slow-cooked onion and became a foundation for arrossos, fideus, suquets, and guisats rather than a finished table sauce. The Catalan name preserves the method: sofregir means to fry gently, and that patient first panful carries through the whole dish.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
yellow onions or ceba de Figueres
Quantity
750g whole, yielding 600g prepared
trimmed, peeled, and finely diced into 3 to 4mm pieces
ripe plum tomatoes or canned whole plum tomatoes
Quantity
500g fresh, yielding about 400g pulp, or one 400g can
fresh tomatoes halved and grated with skins discarded, or canned tomatoes crushed by hand
extra virgin olive oil
Quantity
90ml
fine sea salt
Quantity
6g
water (optional)
Quantity
up to 60ml
added 15ml at a time only if the onion catches
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| yellow onions or ceba de Figuerestrimmed, peeled, and finely diced into 3 to 4mm pieces | 750g whole, yielding 600g prepared |
| ripe plum tomatoes or canned whole plum tomatoesfresh tomatoes halved and grated with skins discarded, or canned tomatoes crushed by hand | 500g fresh, yielding about 400g pulp, or one 400g can |
| extra virgin olive oil | 90ml |
| fine sea salt | 6g |
| water (optional)added 15ml at a time only if the onion catches | up to 60ml |
Equipment Needed
- •Digital kitchen scale
- •Wide heavy frying pan or sauté pan, 28 to 30cm
- •Box grater
- •Flat-ended wooden spoon or heatproof spatula
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the vegetables
Weigh 600g of peeled onion, then dice it evenly into 3 to 4mm pieces. Cut the fresh tomatoes across their middles and grate the cut faces against the large holes of a box grater until only the skins remain. Discard the skins and weigh out about 400g of pulp. If using canned tomatoes, crush the fruit and its juices into a coarse pulp.
A food processor is fine for the onion if you pulse carefully. Stop while distinct pieces remain. Onion purée releases too much water at once and is more likely to scorch later. - 2
Soften the onion
Set a wide 28 to 30cm heavy pan over medium-low heat and add the olive oil. When the oil flows freely across the pan but isn't smoking, add the onion and all the salt. Cook uncovered for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring every two minutes, until the onion collapses, turns translucent, and loses its raw smell.
- 3
Cook to dark gold
Lower the heat and cook the onion for another 30 to 40 minutes. Stir every four or five minutes at first, then every minute or two as it darkens. Scrape the bottom and corners each time. The onion must become deep golden, soft, and jammy without developing crisp black edges. If it starts sticking before it is uniformly soft, add 15ml water and scrape the pan clean. Low heat gives the onion time to become sweet while its water leaves; hurry it and the edges burn while the middle stays sharp.
- 4
Reduce the tomato
Add the tomato pulp and stir it thoroughly into the onion. Raise the heat to medium for about five minutes, just until the mixture bubbles evenly, then return it to low. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring every three or four minutes and more often near the end. It is ready when the colour is deep russet, small beads of oil appear at the edges, and a spoon drawn across the pan leaves a clean track for at least five seconds. There should be no watery halo around the sofregit. This is the test that matters.
Canned tomato usually needs five to ten minutes longer because it carries more liquid. Follow the spoon track, not the clock. - 5
Cool and portion
Take the pan off the heat and leave the sofregit to settle for 10 minutes. Taste a cooled spoonful and adjust only if it truly needs more salt. Transfer it to a shallow container and refrigerate within two hours, or divide it into 75 to 100g portions for freezing. The oil may separate as it chills; stir it back through before using.
Chef Tips
- •Ceba de Figueres, the mild pink onion associated with Catalan cooking, makes an especially sweet sofregit. An ordinary yellow storage onion is the proper practical substitute; it tastes a little sharper at first, so give it the full slow cooking time.
- •Use ripe fresh tomatoes when the market has them. In colder months, a good 400g can of whole peeled plum tomatoes is better than pale fresh fruit. The result is deeper and less bright, which costs this cooked base very little.
- •Choose a balanced extra virgin olive oil without harsh bitterness. Ninety millilitres looks generous, but the oil carries the onion and protects it through the long reduction. This is not the place for a dry pan.
- •Keep a general batch to onion, tomato, oil, and salt. Add garlic, peppers, herbs, or pimentón later only when the final regional dish calls for them. Put everything in the base and it stops being useful for half the dishes you made it for.
- •For four servings, use about 75g in a pot of legumes or a guisat and 100 to 125g in a Catalan rice or noodle dish. Account for the salt already in the sofregit before seasoning the finished dish.
Advance Preparation
- •Make the complete sofregit up to four days ahead. Cool it in a shallow container, cover, and refrigerate within two hours of cooking.
- •Freeze in weighed 75 to 100g portions for up to three months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator or add a frozen portion directly to a simmering guisat.
- •Do not store sofregit in sealed jars at room temperature. This onion-heavy mixture is not suitable for ordinary water-bath canning; freezing is the safe household method.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 56g)
Calories
130 calories
Total Fat
10 g
Saturated Fat
1 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
9 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
300 mg
Total Carbohydrates
9 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
5 g
Protein
1 g
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