Influence of Cooking and Ingredients on the Antioxidant Activity, Phenolic Content and Volatile Profile of Different Variants of the Mediterranean Typical Tomato Sofrito

In this study, six different sofrito formulations were compared with the raw recipe for total phenolic content (TPC), antioxidant activity tested by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and 2,2-azinobis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS) methods. The volatile profile was also obtained by the headspace solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC–MS) procedure. The cooking process and the addition of herbs, and garlic improved the final content of antioxidant compounds compared to the basic recipe and the raw ingredients. The total volatile content was higher in the samples that contained rosemary and thymus. Some of the volatiles had proven antioxidant properties and for that reason the sofrito with rosemary with the higher volatile content was also the one with the higher antioxidant capacity and TPC. In conclusion, as well as the processing technique, the addition of selected typical Mediterranean herbs apart from given flavour can contribute to improving the nutritional antioxidant profile of dishes and be used as a natural method to increase the shelf-life of preparation.