All vegetables should be chopped into a small dice, but this doesn’t have to be perfect and a little variation is nice. Use a food processor for this to speed things along – just roughly chunk and process each type individually – don’t mix pepper and onions together, for instance, because the peppers will be mush by the time the firmer onion is broken down.

You can roast and peel your peppers if you’d like to, but that really depends on if you want the smoky flavor in your sofrito. Some dishes rely on it for flavor, and others don’t.

In a very large, heavy skillet or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Add peppers and cook, stirring often, for a few minutes or until peppers are turning a bit golden.  Add garlic and cook until the garlic is cooked through; be careful not to burn.  Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring often, until the mixture is thick and jammy.

If tomatoes are a little weak in flavor, add in the tomato paste just to boost it up a bit.

Let sofrito cool and portion out into Ziploc bags or ice cube trays. I portion in Ziplocs in one-cup portions.

When using ziplocs, open and label all bags first. Filling is easiest if the Sofrito is all portioned out on a sheet pan or plate. It’s easy to fill the bags with little mess or bother. Shake each bag down, roll, and freeze, flat on a sheet tray. Gang them up into a larger bag so there’s no need to search for them when needed.

Each cup of Sofrito contains (approximately) about 1 1/2 cups each of tomato and peppers and 1/2 cup of onion.