Soffritto is the ultimate base for a range of dishes from stews and casseroles to pasta sauces and soups, but it can take quite a while to perfectly dice all those vegetables up – especially if it’s for a quick midweek meal. So, can you store it for the long term?
Can You Freeze Soffritto?
Yes, you can freeze soffritto for up to 6 months. Once you’ve chopped all your vegetables, give them a soften in a hot pan before allowing them to cool. Once cool, bag them up, then place them into the freezer.
Do Does Soffritto freeze well? Yes
Can you refreeze Soffritto? No
How To Freeze Soffritto
If you have a little time on your hands, then this is the best way to freeze soffritto. Admittedly, it does take a bit more time upfront, but you’ll save yourself plenty of time in future when it comes to using your soffritto.
- Prepare Veg: First, you need to prepare all your vegetables. To do this, dice them all up by hand or blitz them in a food processor. There are no hard and fast rules here, so just cut them up as small as you normally would when making a soup or sauce.
- Soften: Heat some butter or oil in a pan and soften all the vegetables over a low heat. You want to try and avoid browning the vegetables as this can tarnish the finished dish.
- Cool: Once softened, give it time to cool.
- Bag Up: Once cool, place it into portions in freezer bags. Once bagged up, seal them up, trying to squeeze out as much of the air as possible. You want to manually vacuum-pack the soffritto mix.
- Freeze: Place the bags into the freezer and you’re done.
Mirepoix, holy trinity and soffritto are fairly interchangeable and are essentially different terms used in different countries to describe the base of their main dishes. They can all be frozen for around 6 months.
3 Tips for Freezing Soffritto
Now you know how to freeze it, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing soffritto to have the best results:
Use From Frozen
There’s no need to thaw it. When you need soffritto, simply grab it from the freezer and pop it straight into the pan to cook.
Mix It Up
Don’t be afraid of trying other vegetables in your soffritto mix as most work well with this method. Shallots, spring onions, garlic, celeriac and courgette can all work particularly well.
Use an Ice Cube Tray
If you prefer to freeze individual portions, get an ice cube tray with large slots and freeze cubes of soffritto mix. You may need to add a little liquid such as olive oil to help it hold together.
How Long Can You Freeze Soffritto?
If you have used the method above, you’ll be fine to keep your soffritto in the freezer for 6 months. Beyond this point, it’ll remain perfectly safe to eat, but the flavours of the vegetables will begin to degrade and, therefore, won’t be worth using.
Once vegetables are diced, they instantly start to soften and turn bad. Unfortunately, diced soffritto will only last for 24 hours in the fridge.
How Do You Defrost Soffritto?
This is where your efforts pay off. You don’t need to defrost it.
Remove your soffritto from the freezer, scoop it from the bag, and straight into the dish you’re cooking, whether it be a soup, stew or sauce.
It’ll instantly add that soffritto base flavour to your dish without the need for preparing all the vegetables.
Can You Refreeze Soffritto?
The good news is that if you’re using the method outlined on this page, then there is no need to refreeze it as you should have bagged it up into suitably sized portions. If you thaw out too much, then we recommend not refreezing it.
If you are making a dish with your frozen soffritto which you want to freeze (therefore refreezing your soffritto), then this is also perfectly safe.
Does Soffritto Freeze Well?
Soffritto freezes remarkably well. If you use the technique we have used on this page, then we would encourage freezing as it can save you bags of time when you want to knock together a quick midweek sauce or a batch of soups.
The most important step is reheating. Ensure you do so over a low and slow heat to avoid burning the outside of the soffritto before it has completely thawed and heated through.
Related FAQs
If you’ve still got questions about freezing soffritto or soffritto in general, then these may help:
Frozen soffritto can be used straight from the freezer. Scoop a portion or two into a pot and then cook it low and slow as you normally would for the base of any soup, stew or sauce.
Yes, most major supermarkets will sell a pack of ready-mixed soffritto that’s already frozen. This can be a huge time saver!
Sources
We have verified the information on this page using the following resources:
