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The Italian methodology always sounds beautiful and is an excellent roadmap: soffritto, tostare, sfumatura, brodo/cottura and mantecura.

She then cooks the soffritto for a long time—almost 40 minutes to build flavor and have the texture of the vegetables almost disappear in the dish—and I decided I'd give congrí another try.

Add the onion, carrot and celery — the soffritto — and cook slowly over medium-low heat, stirring frequently enough so the soffritto doesn’t brown — until the onion is soft, translucent and pale gold, about 15 minutes.

It was the sole recipe in which the soffritto wasn’t finely chopped, so the vegetables didn’t melt into the sauce as they did with the others.

All call for soffritto and tomato, and two or three of the following: wine, stock and milk.