Whatever you name these and however you spell them and whichever way you assemble them, whether it’s an Italian soffritto or a Spanish or Hispanic sofrito, a Catalan sofregit, a Portuguese refogado, a Caribbean holy trinity, a German suppengrün, a Polish wloszczyna, an African-Taino epis and of course a French mirepoix, these basic concoctions, create the foundations of delicious sauces and dishes and could be made ahead and preserved for later.

These bases are for sauces, soups and braising liquids and require a mixture and ratios of different vegetables, that are usually diced, slowly cooked in fats, to slowly release and sweeten their flavors, without over-browning and incorporated to whatever you’re making, letting more complex flavors shine through and making the preparations more complete and more rounded, thus more delicious.

I’ve devised a method to prepare these in advance and preserve them in small, sterilized glass jars, in portions of approximately ¼ cup or ½ cup or 1 full cup, depending on what I think or what I know I’ll be making in the near future.

Additional flavor additions are optional, since you can always decide to add them in at the last minute, when you decide how you’ll prepare your final dish and which flavors you want to highlight.

As a rule, adding salt and pepper, bay leaves and flat-leaf parsley is always necessary, and I prefer using olive oil, instead of other fats. I make these mixtures a bit saltier and oilier than usual, simply to avoid adding the salt and oil later, because I know that the mixture will be diluted by the final preparation by at least half and the extra salt and oil will preserve the jarred mixtures much longer in the refrigerator.

I always add garlic, in different proportions, because I know what I like. I also add one anchovy or just a bit of “marmite” fermented yeast paste, to push the flavor depth of the mixture. Some dried or fresh herbs are added in and other spices, like different paprikas. The white wine vinegar is used simply to deglaze the pan and loosen any sticky bits stuck to the bottom and helps in preserving the mixtures longer.

There are 4 sauce bases presented here. The first is a modified French mirepoix or Italian soffritto, which I call the onion-carrot-celery mixture. The second is a modified Spanish sofrito which I call the onion-green pepper-yellow pepper-red-pepper mixture. The third is a greener and more Caribbean holy trinity base which I call the green pepper-onion-celery base and the fourth is a base that I use for many fish dishes, which I call the fennel-onion-celery base, with added dill, but that could also be used for white meats, but without the dill.

The preparation principle I use is the same for all 4 variations of the sauce bases. I chop, slice or dice everything in small sizes. I use a large and wide heavy-bottomed sauté pan (with a lid for later), to heat up the oil with the salt, pepper, bay leaves and anchovy and then I add everything in, almost  at the same time, let everything cook at medium-high heat for 10 minutes, without a lid and stir it all up often, then I transfer the dish, with a lid, to a pre-heated oven and let everything simmer gently at low heat for 50-60 minutes. I always add the spices and dried herbs at the beginning and fresh herbs only at the end. I sterilize the jars and then I transfer the hot mixture to the warm or hot jars, close them tightly with a lid, turn them upside-down until they’re cooled (like jams), turn them back upright and refrigerate them until needed. If well preserved, they can last in the refrigerator for many months, which I prefer to freezing or vacuum-sealing, because they get too soft and mushy.

For this publication, I made small amounts, but which will be enough for 4-8 different meals for two, saving me at least 90 minutes per dish, without the extra mess and cleaning-up in the near future. If you know what you like and what you’ll use, you should make much more and invent your own mixtures too.

As a rule of thumb, you can use a little of the sauce base for a variety of dishes, as a foundation, or you can use more, so the base makes up half of the finished sauce and most probably one-quarter of the finished dish.

If it’s a simple tomato sauce for pasta or rice, it’s easy to add in equal amounts of tomatoes and sauce base, for different versions of tomato and vegetable sauces, like I showed you several weeks ago (see recipe here) and I’ll have a newer recipe for you soon, with a sneak-peak of its preparation, as the last image of this post, using one of these new sauce bases too. 

Otherwise, the sauce bases can be later simmered with wine, or you could add dairy for a creamy sauce or different meat stocks for braising or apply the sauces directly to different meats. The possibilities are endless and it’s all up to you.

These sauce bases are so delicious that I use the leftovers as is, as dips, without mixing in anything additional, accompanied with a variety of breads or breadsticks or thick chips.

So you’ll spend half a day in the kitchen, preparing all this stuff in advance, but you’ll enjoy and appreciate all the free time you’ll have later, when half of several of your future dishes, are practically ready.

Work and organize yourselves now, to rest and play later … :)