What is a soffritto?

Soffritto is a traditional seasoned vegetable base for many Italian pasta sauces, providing an intense aromatic and full-bodied flavour. It can also be the base for soups, such as minestrone, or a stew.

Onion, celery and carrots are considered the holy trinity for soffritto because when cooked on low heat and slowly in olive oil, the combined flavour creates an umami and versatile base.

Although these are the three core vegetables in Italy, regional and personal variations can sometimes be found. Sometimes garlic, parsley or other herbs are added in addition to onion, carrot and celery.

Preparation time: 10min

Cooking time: 30min

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 small white or yellow onion

2-3 medium-sized carrots

2-3 celery stalks

Cut the vegetables into different sizes. You do this because different vegetables have different cooking times. You can also cut them the same size if necessary but then you have to throw in veggies one by one to cook them properly.
Cut the carrot into small triangles and then slice them very thin (otherwise the carrot will take most of the time). Tip: you can also grate it, which is faster. We recommend doing both for different textures and to get extra creaminess in your final sauce.
Cut the onion in half and remove the skin. Try to hang back as much as possible while slicing to avoid crying. Then cut it first into rings and then into small cubes, but it should be chunkier than the carrot. And grate the other half of the onion.
Remove the bottom white part of the celery and take off the big strands. Then cut into small cubes and again grate the other half.
Warm up your pan with good Italian extra-virgin olive oil. Put all the cut pieces of vegetables in the pan at once and add the grated vegetables later. Stir for 4 minutes and let it fry. Now add the grated greens and keep stirring for another 1 / 2 minutes.

The Soffritto is ready and you can now proceed to finish your sauce. If you’ve made too much you can already

What is the difference between fresh pasta and dry pasta?

There is a misconception about fresh pasta and dry pasta. One is not better than the other or healthier than the other. There is not much difference in the two pastas only that dry pasta, without eggs, can be kept longer than a fresh pasta with eggs. The big difference is in the combination of pasta type and pasta sauce. A Bolognese sauce, is a slightly fattier sauce, and it goes best with fresh pasta. So in the end, it’s all about the sauce you add to your pasta.

Preparation time: 70min

Cooking time: 2-3min

Ingredients:

3 eggs

300g durum flour

Flour

Start with 300g durum flour and make a round. Add two whole eggs to this and a third egg with just the yolk. This will later give you a slightly different texture and a slightly yellower colour.
Mix the eggs with the flour. Use a flat surface for this, such as a wooden board. Do not mix the flour and the eggs as a whole right away, but keep mixing a part of the flour with the eggs to get a firm structure.
Once the eggs and flour are mixed, you can knead the whole thing. If necessary, use a knife to remove the dough from the board to knead it afterwards.
Knead the dough for about 5 minutes. If you feel the dough is too hard you can add egg. It may be that the dough is too wet, in which case you can always add extra flour.
Next, make a ball of the dough and wrap foil around it. Let this rest at room temperature for a while (about an hour).
After resting, lay the dough with some flour on a flat surface. Shape this into a flat shape with your hands and roll it flat with a rolling pin to about 2 mm. Cut the dough into strands of about 1 cm.
Cook the pasta in salted water for 2-3 minutes.

Tip: In Italy, people often use a marble stone as a surface so the dough always stays cold.