Carrots, onions and celery are the ideal vegetables to make a classic sauté, a basic preparation to enrich your sauces, roasts or fish with flavor. Here's how to do it right
The sauté it is the basis of many Italian dishes. It can be said that it marries almost all preparations, because in fact it is a mix of aromas that enhances the taste of any food it is associated with. If done well, it enriches every dish with flavor, if, on the contrary, it is not done to perfection, it can completely ruin any dish. For this it is essential to follow 5 simple rules that will allow you to bring to the table a perfect dish, with a more rounded and complex aroma, and to have in the air that unmistakable aroma given by the vegetables browned over a very sweet flame.
Celery, carrot and onion: the basic ingredients
The perfect trio: celery, carrot and onion. They are in fact the necessary ingredients for the realization of an excellent sauté. All with their own defined flavor which, combined, give that particular taste to each preparation. The freshness of celery, the sweetness of the carrot and the aromaticity of the onion are mixed to create a harmonious base with which to enrich any dish.
The cut is not a detail
The vegetables for the sauté must be chopped, possibly by hand, without using a mixer which would alter the properties of celery, carrot and onion with the heat. The result should be as much diced vegetables as possible same size, to obtain a uniform cooking and consistency.
The perfect pot
The pan in which to cook the sauté is also of fundamental importance. Better to use the non-stick, to avoid the risk of the vegetables sticking to the bottom. Those are fine too earthenware or copper, which spread the heat more evenly and therefore remove the risk of burning everything and having to start over. The pot must be large, with the edges a little high, to allow you to turn the diced without difficulty.
The choice of fat
The basis of the sauce is a fat, which can be a extra virgin olive oil or butter. The first, if chosen from the lighter ones, such as Ligurian or Lake Garda oil, will give a more delicate flavor to the dishes. If you decide to use an oil for the sauté, heat it slightly before adding the vegetables. If, on the other hand, you prefer butter, heat the pan over low heat to melt it, and then add celery, carrot and onion. In any case, remember that vegetables only have to brown, do not fry.
Times: slow progress
It is the last aspect, but certainly not the least important: time. To make a perfect sauté it is essential do not rush. The vegetables must cook until golden. To achieve this, the fire must be very sweet and the vegetables must fry for at least 15 minutes, after having been turned over at least a couple of times. To help you understand if they are ready, it will not only be their appearance, but the intense, persistent, unmistakable scent that will spread throughout every room.
This recipe has already been read 543 times!