In this episode of Milk Street TV, we travel to Abruzzo, Italy to uncover the real spaghetti and meatballs. While there, we learned several key lessons: There should be a mini meatball in every bite. The chitarra is more than a guitar. And proper soffritto preparation is key. While we love to make vegetable prep as easy as possible, soffritto is so important to the overall flavor of the dish that shortcuts are discouraged.

Making a sweeter soffrito

Sofriitto is a mixture of chopped vegetables that creates a foundation of flavor and body in a sauce. Building sauces from a vegetable base is a widely embraced practice, and though the exact vegetables vary from region to region, the Italian version consists of carrots, onions and celery. When sautéed, the finely chopped veggies become soft and fragrant. Liquid is added to loosen the texture and allow the flavors to permeate the dish.

Making soffrito for our Original Spaghetti and Meatballs isn’t a difficult task; the biggest hurdle is taking the time to finely chop the onions, carrots, and celery. It’s a fair amount of prep. Breaking out the food processor might seem like the easy fix, but resist the temptation. We encourage you to take your time with a trusty knife and cutting board.

Chopping by hand is worth it

Food processors will make a mince of your veggies in mere seconds, but there are pitfalls. The blades will chop and bounce the ingredients around in the container, leading to irregular cuts. It’s not the end of the world, but unless you’re puréeing (which we are not), evenly chopped pieces are almost always preferred for more even cooking.

Secondly, and most importantly, we noticed in our tests that there was a difference in flavor between our food processed spaghetti sauce and the one in which the vegetables were chopped by hand. Simply put: Vegetables prepped in the food processor get obliterated. The plant cells rupture, leading to increased oxidation which tastes bitter in the finished dish. By hand-cutting, we extract just the right amount of flavor.

Save time in other ways

Hand-chopping your veggies doesn’t mean you can’t save time with this spaghetti and meatballs recipe—just not with a food processor. Instead, make the soffrito ahead of time. It keeps wonderfully in the fridge or freezer.

Make soffrito by cooking the chopped carrots, celery and onion in a tablespoon or two of olive oil with a pinch of salt. Cover the pot with a lid and continue cooking the vegetables on low heat for about 45 minutes. The veggies will be soft and translucent but not browned. Cool the soffrito completely and pack it in a container with a well-fitting lid. It will keep in the refrigerator for about a week or in the freezer for several months.

Thaw the frozen soffrito in the fridge the night before, or briefly in the microwave. Add the thawed soffrito straight to the pot and continue the recipe from there. As far as the chitarra and mini meatballs are concerned, you’ll have to check out the full Spaghetti and Meatballs episode to get the details straight from Abruzzo.

Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Allie Chantorn Reinmann is a Digital Staff Writer for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street. She’s a Thai-American chef who earned her diploma for Pastry and Baking Arts at The Institute of Culinary Education and worked professionally for over a decade honing her craft in New York City at places like Balthazar, Bien Cuit, The Chocolate Room, Billy’s Bakery and Whole Foods. Allie took her know-how from the kitchen to the internet, writing about food full-time at Lifehacker for three years and starting her own YouTube channel, ThaiNYbites. You can find her whipping up baked goods for cafés around Brooklyn, building wedding cakes and trying her hand (feet?) at marathon running. She’s working on her debut cookbook and lives in Brooklyn, NY.