One of the keys to good dishes is a base of sweated vegetables such
as onion, celery carrot and garlic which when cooked in olive oil, is
called a Soffritto in Italian cookery. In other parts of the
Mediterranean and Latin America where Europeans settled this base to
dishes may include other vegetables such as peppers, tomatoes and
mushrooms, and have other names such as mirepoix (/mɪərˈpwɑː/ meer-PWAH); but the idea is the same to give a base flavour to soups, sauces, risotto and stew type dishes.
