Aromatic vegetables include members of the onion family, carrots, garlic and peppers. If the recipe calls for sweating, the aromatics are cooked over low heat. This gets the vegetables to release their flavor so it ultimately ends up in the surrounding liquid. You’ll usually be told to cover the pan so the moisture and aroma from the vegetables are trapped and the vegetables don’t brown.
For some dishes, you cover and cook the veggies gently, then remove the lid and let them slowly caramelize. This caramelization gives soups and sauces a richer, more complex flavor and a deep color.
If the directions say to saute, the aromatics are cooked rapidly over high heat to seal in the flavor. Be sure the vegetables to be sauteed are dry, and do not crowd the pan. If necessary, saute in batches. The fat must be hot to produce good browning and crisping.
When you are prepping the vegetables — washing, peeling if necessary, and cutting — the type of dish and how long it will be cooked will determine the size of the pieces. For quick-cooking dishes, the pieces should be cut into tiny dice. Soups and braises call for aromatic vegetables to be cut into medium-sized pieces. Long-cooking stews and long-simmering stocks are best with large pieces such as onions cut in half, whole celery ribs and carrots in chunks.
Fats to be used include butter, olive oil, peanut oil, lard or even the rendered fat from a prosciutto or pancetta rind.
These sauteed or sweated bases are called different names in different cuisines. The classic French flavor base, known as mirepoix (meer-PWAH), is a combination of finely chopped onions, celery, and carrots sautéed in butter; the Italian soffritto (soh-FREE-toh) varies by region and may be as simple as chopped onion and a little garlic sauteed in olive oil. Mexican cooks often don’t use any fat at all, instead dry-roasting garlic, onions, and chiles on a flat, heavy roasting pan. [Serry]
Serry, Carol Anderson. “Aromatic veggies often the start of a great meal.” <i>North County Times</i>. 12 October 2000. <a href="http://www.nctimes.com/news/101200/pp.html" title="Aromatic veggies often the start of a great meal - NCTimes.net"><http:// www.nctimes.com/ news/ 101200/ pp.html></a> (8 December 2001).