Name: Spanish Sofrito
Cook time: 90 min
Total time: 90 min
Yield: About 1 1/2 cups

A Southern chef with a scientific mind, Katie Button worked for some of the world's best chefs before opening her own restaurants to rave reviews. Receiving four James Beard nominations and many editorial features, she now inspires the at-home chef with her first cookbook of authentic Spanish recipes.

Katie Button

Use the sofrito in rice dishes and stews or to add flavor to any dish.

Spanish Sofrito

Meet The Creator

I love a one-pot meal that also feels extra-special, and paella makes that kind of meal. This Spanish dish of rice, vegetables and meat or seafood packs flavor and simplicity into one skillet. A large pan of paella is festive, colorful and serves a crowd — it’s just right for a celebratory dinner with friends and family. Making the vegetable-and-aromatic sofrito is a key step in cooking paella and acts as the dish’s flavor base. I like a combination of mussels, shrimp and lobster tails in the seafood version of the dish, but you can easily tailor it to your favorite types of seafood.

Elizabeth Poett's Seafood and Asparagus Paella

Seafood and Asparagus Paella

Ratatouille was created as a necessary but delicious way to handle the mid-summer explosion of vegetables. The dish has similar counterparts around the globe, all uniquely seasoned and with some variation in ingredients based on locale. I love to use an extra-large braiser to double or triple this recipe and store it in quart-size containers in the freezer. I especially welcome the burst of summer veggie flavor in winter months. Searing the vegetables is a bit time consuming up front, but once it’s done, the whole thing goes into the oven to cook down into out-of-this-world deliciousness. Serve it with a loaf of bread, or crack some eggs over the top and bake it for dinner. It's great with seared fish or grilled meat, adding incredible brightness and depth of flavor to any dish.

Classic Ratatouille

The first step to this recipe is to make a rich mushroom stock, which packs enormous mushroom flavor intensity, adding depth to any recipe where stock is used. When sourcing the fresh mushrooms, look for larger ones because they’ll hold up to the braise. Clusters of lion's mane, oyster mushrooms, and maitake mushrooms can often be found at specialty grocery stores (but white button mushrooms can be substituted). To prep them, pull apart the clusters into 3-inch chunks. The final product is an umami-filled dish with brightness from the orange juice. Enjoy it as a veggie-forward main or a hearty side dish.

Katie Button's Orange and Honey Braised Mushrooms

Orange and Honey Braised Mushrooms

This fried chicken brined with lemon and rosemary and drizzled with honey is unbelievably delicious! It’s also pretty simple to make; once I get the chicken in the brine, I can just let it sit in the refrigerator, and the brine will flavor the meat while I get work done around the ranch. I use a lot of lemon and 2 tablespoons of rosemary, which add some nice California flavors to the dish. And when I fry the chicken, I dredge it in flour twice—once before I dip it in the buttermilk and once after—so that the crust will be really crisp and bubbly after it’s fried.

Rosemary Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Pasta-like potato gnocchi are easy to make and require only a few ingredients that you likely already have in your kitchen. There is something so comforting about this dish that combines the browned, crispy edges of the gnocchi with roasted butternut squash and a cream sauce. The leeks and tarragon give it a fragrance and flavor reminiscent of early spring.

Elizabeth Poett's Homemade Gnocchi with a Creamy Tarragon and Leek Sauce

Homemade Gnocchi with Creamy Tarragon-Leek Sauce

This sweet, smoky, spicy salsa is a great accompaniment to a classic grilled tri-tip. It’s also great on its own with tortilla chips or as an addition to tacos, steaks, or eggs. (When I make it, I try to keep some around for breakfast the next morning, but it’s so good that we usually end up eating it all at dinner.) The key to the salsa’s complex flavor is to grill the vegetables so that their skin gets a nice charred, smoky flavor; then add some fresh sweet corn. If you want to make the salsa without firing up the grill, you can get a similar result by toasting your vegetables over a flame on the stove or blackening them a bit under the broiler.

Fire Roasted Salsa

Every home in Ireland has their own soda bread recipe, and this is mine. It's a quick, simple recipe that I absolutely love. I'm using dried cherries here, but you can add whatever you want to the dough, including other dried fruit or nuts. You can even make it savory with cheese or olives.

Irish Soda Bread

These are my go-to weeknight mashed potatoes, no peeling required. New potatoes or red potatoes have tender, thin skin that can be mashed right in. The simplest additions of cream, butter, and chives result in a rustic, easy dish that’s truly divine.

Katie Button's Mashed New Potatoes with Chives

Mashed New Potatoes with Chives

Coming into fresh truffles is a special moment. The flavor and aroma are woodsy and strong and make an incredible addition to a variety of dishes. One of the best ways to extend the enjoyment of a truffle is to incorporate it into butter that can be stored in the refrigerator or freezer for a wide variety of future applications. Check out my Truffle Butter Roasted Chicken recipe, swirl it into your favorite pasta for a weeknight meal, or melt over steak, still hot from the grill. YUM!

Truffle Butter

For marinated mushrooms, I usually select a combination of baby bella and shiitake mushrooms. They are tender and lend a pretty, deep brown color to the dish. Lion’s mane, oyster and button mushrooms would also work well here. To clean the mushrooms, trim the stem and gently remove dirt or debris. For shiitakes, remove the entire stem from each mushroom because it’s usually too fibrous to eat. Shiitake stems can be dried in a paper bag in the fridge and used to make stock at a later date. Use marinated mushrooms in salads, on charcuterie boards, or enjoy as is for a healthy snack. Make a vinaigrette with the leftover marinade or use it for a second batch of marinated mushrooms!

Katie Button's Seared and Marinated Mushrooms

Seared and Marinated Mushrooms

During strawberry season, I often make strawberry shortcakes around the same time that I make my classic strawberry jam to put up for the year, because I like to use the fresh jam in place of fresh strawberries in this classic dessert. The warm jam soaks into the biscuits, helping hold the two sides of the cakes together, and it also gives the dessert a sweet, decadent flavor. (If you’re not making your own strawberry jam, buy a good-quality jam that has a bright, fresh flavor and will loosen up nicely when you heat it.) These shortcakes are best eaten warm, so if you’re planning ahead, steep and chill the whipped cream ahead of time, and reheat your jam so it is warmed through and the cream is cold enough to whip right when the biscuits come out of the oven.

Strawberry Shortcake

Pasta carbonara is something I make all the time at home. And tossing in kelp and lobster took it to a whole new level. You can leave those ingredients out or substitute them for something else to get creative. But the briny and buttery flavor that the kelp and lobster bring to this dish is divine.

Katie's Pasta Carbonara with Kelp and Lobster

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I love peaches! My godmother came for a visit on the ranch recently and reminded me about this classic dish. It is such a simple and wonderful way to enjoy summer fruit when it is abundant and at peak flavor. One of my favorite things about making a buckle is the way the batter buckles over and around the fruit as it bakes, making the most scrumptious, chewy, buttery top layer.

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