Sofrito
March 19, 2020 • Condiments,
It’s more than a little intimidating to try to create a recipe for someone who has strong childhood memories of what it should taste like. While the man in my life didn’t grow up in Puerto Rico, his mother was born there, and Sofrito is one of those staples used widely in Puerto Rican cooking. 
His aunt gave me a list of ingredients along with a bag of herbs from her garden to make softrito at home after our visit there in January, but some of the ingredients aren’t widely available in Denver. Plus, she only listed ingredients, no measurements.
So I took a shot, and it’s quite good if I do say so myself. Use this as a condiment, stir it into scrambled eggs, and more. I made a big batch and froze it in ice cube trays.
- 12 garlic cloves
- 1 large white onion, diced (about 1½ cups)
- 4 Anaheim chile peppers (or cubanelle if you can find them), seeded and roughly chopped (about 3 cups
- 8 small sweet red peppers, seeded and roughly chopped (about 2 cups)
- 1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
- Other herbs (see Notes)
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- Put the garlic in the bowl of a food processor and let the bad run until it's finely minced. Add the onion, Anaheim peppers, red peppers, cilantro, herbs, and salt. Pulse several times until it breaks down, the process until finely minced and paste-like.
- Store for 1 week in the refrigerator or freeze in ice cube trays for easy use later.