When you smell the tantalizing aroma of sofrito in a pan with olive oil, you know you’re in for a delicious, authentic Cuban meal. Sofrito is the foundation of Cuban cuisine. It’s the base of countless dishes, but it isn’t exclusive to Cuba, the Caribbean, or even Latin cuisine. Cultures across the world use aromatic bases similar to this one in their cooking – they just call it different names. In France, it’s called mirexpoix. Puerto Ricans call it recaíto. And in Italy, it’s just soffritto.

The basics for a Caribbean sofrito consist of garlic, onions, and peppers. Across cultures and kitchens, people remix it by adding fresh herbs, tomato sauce, and in this recipe’s case, manzanilla olives stuffed with pimentos.

To make this sofrito, add white onion, garlic, bell peppers, and olives to a food processor and chop them up until you have a consistent paste-like base. Sofrito is cooked in olive oil to create the base for meats, rice, and sauces. Use this sofrito as a base for classic Cuban dishes like ropa vieja, picadillo, and bacalao à la vizcaína.

This recipe makes about two cups of sofrito, which is much more than enough for one dish. Store your sofrito in an air-tight container in the fridge for about a week with a little bit of olive oil drizzled on top, or freeze it into cubes for use at a later date.

The ingredients

Onion + garlic

These are the most basic of your ingredients. Choose a small white onion, not a yellow or red one. And, garlic is just garlic.

Bell peppers

Cuban sofrito calls for bell peppers of three different colors. Bell peppers often come in four colors: green, red, orange, and yellow. You for sure need a green and red bell pepper, and its dealer’s choice for either an orange or yellow bell pepper as your third.

Manzanilla olives with pimentos

The best olives to use are Manzanilla olives, or Spanish olives, stuffed with pimentos. Some people add pimento on their own to their sofrito, but it’s nice that the olives already come with them. Goya is the preferred brand for Manzanilla olives in Cuban cooking.

Print Recipe

Cuban Sofrito

Aromatic base of Cuban cuisine with onions, garlic, bell peppers, and olives.

Total Time20

Cuisine: Cuban

Keyword: Cuba, Cuban, sofrito

Servings: 2 cups

Equipment

1 Food processor

Ingredients

1 small white onion
1 head of garlic
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 orange or yellow bell pepper
1 9.5 oz jar Manzanilla olives or Spanish olives stuffed with pimento

Instructions

Roughly chop 1 small white onion into quarters and add to the food processor.
Peel 1 head of garlic and add cloves to the food processor.
Cut the bell peppers in half and remove the tops and seeds. Roughly chop bell peppers. Put half of each bell pepper into the food processor.
You can freeze the other half of the bell peppers for fajitas or other recipes.
Add the olives from 1 9.5 oz jar Manzanilla olives or Spanish olives stuffed with pimento to the food processor.
Turn on the food processor and pulse until you have a consistent paste.