Sofrito

In Cuba we also make sofrito, although it is slightly different from Puerto Rico's. The "Trinity" is olive oil, garlic and onion. People usually add green pepper, pimientos (sweet red peppers) salt, pepper. tomatoes, vino seco (dry cooking wine), Spanish chorizo, spices (cumin, culantro (not cilantro)), "Mexican" oregano (different from "American" oregano), sazon, saffron, bay leaves, annato, etc., depending on what they are cooking. Cuban food is spicy, but it is not "hot".

My Puerto Rican grandmother never used cilantro or cualantro, and neither did my mom, and neither do I :-) I don't know why they didn't use it, but I don't because I'm one of those people with a cilantro-aversion. If any purist tries to tell you that cualantro (or cilantro) must be included in an 'authentic' sofrito, they can take it up with my grandma who was born and raised in Puerto RIco. ;-p

Que rico! I can smell it from here! We make this from the garden (but we buy onion), and freeze it in ice cube trays so we can pop it in soups and sauces.

The composition of sofrito is subjective. Put in the combo you prefer. But as long as you are using your food processor make a big batch. I use equal parts big onions, any color sweet peppers, cilantro, at least two whole heads of garlic, peeled, and when I find them I add a few “ajies” or “ajicitos” which are sweet ( be sure you ask if they are sweet). And I don’t find that using culantro vs cilantro makes much difference, but it feels more authentic to include culantro ( also known as recao).

Why is mine pink and not a deeper red?

No need to chop anything, it's getting food processed. Just halve the onion and pepper.

We have been making our own Sofrito and loving it using multiple combo ingredients. We substitute our Southern AZ peppers since we don't have dulce or amarillo peppers here and it is still super great. We make big batches in the food processor and freeze it in smaller portions. Adding a few plum tomatoes to this mix of peppers, onion garlic and cilantro also works super well.

The amarillo pepper is hot, and tastes nothing like the aji dulce used in PR. A cubanelle pepper would be a much better substitute, and is usually included in most sofrito recipes, in addition to the aji dulce.

Find recap in the Ohio area at Jungle Jim’s. I don’t work there but you can find most of these ingredients. I planted my own ají dulce. They produce a lot and you can freeze the batches of sofrito.

In my family, we add dried oregano to sofrito as well. It rounds out the flavor nicely. This recipe is the gold standard as far as Puerto Rican sofrito goes. Any substitutions would change the flavor profile. Try it as written- you won’t be disappointed!