Bagna càuda
A Piedmontese anchovy fondue, eaten in autumn and winter straight off the flame with a platter of vegetables around it. In Piedmontese dialect the name means "hot sauce", often rendered as "hot bath". The technique is one rule: nothing here may fry. The garlic simmers in milk, and everything then cooks in oil below the boil — the anchovies must dissolve, not fry.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Garlic in milk 25 min
- Melting the anchovies 40 min
- Vegetables 20 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneSimmer the garlic in milk, not oil
First wrap the beetroot in foil and put it in an oven heated to 200°C for about 60 minutes — it will be done before the sauce is. Simmer the peeled garlic cloves in the milk for 20–25 minutes over low heat, until soft enough to collapse under a fork. Milk softens the harshness and smell — garlic cooked straight in oil would be much sharper in this quantity.
Ingredients: 12 cloves garlic · 250 ml milk · 100 g anchovy fillets · 200 ml olive oil · 50 g butter
Twenty minutes in milk — the garlic loses its bite.Drain the garlic and crush it
Drain the garlic, discard the milk and crush the cloves to a paste with a fork. The milk has taken the harshness and done its job; left in the sauce it would curdle in the hot oil.
Ingredients: 12 cloves garlic · 250 ml milk · 100 g anchovy fillets · 200 ml olive oil · 50 g butter
Melt the anchovies in oil below the boil
In a small heavy-based pan combine the oil with the garlic paste and warm it very gently, add the anchovies and stir for 30–40 minutes, never letting it bubble. The fillets must dissolve completely — if the oil starts to sizzle, the anchovies fry and turn bitter.
Ingredients: 12 cloves garlic · 250 ml milk · 100 g anchovy fillets · 200 ml olive oil · 50 g butter
No bubbling — the anchovies dissolve, they do not fry.Whisk in the butter at the end
Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the cold butter in pieces. Butter tempers the saltiness of the anchovies and rounds out the flavour. Many Piedmontese households leave it out — the sauce is then sharper and saltier.
Ingredients: 12 cloves garlic · 250 ml milk · 100 g anchovy fillets · 200 ml olive oil · 50 g butter
Prepare raw and cooked vegetables
Cut the pepper, fennel, celery and carrot into bite-sized batons, halve the radishes and separate the cabbage into leaves. Peel the potatoes boiled in their skins and the roasted beetroot and cut them into quarters. The raw vegetables should be cold and crisp and the sauce hot — that contrast is half the pleasure.
Ingredients: 2 pcs peppers · 1 pcs fennel · 4 pcs celery · 3 pcs carrots · 1 bunch radishes · 200 g cabbage · 400 g potatoes · 2 pcs beetroot
Bite-sized batons, raw and cooked side by side.Serve over a flame
Pour into an earthenware pot and set it over a burner or a candle. The sauce must stay hot to the end of the meal — cooled, it stiffens, the oil separates and the point is lost. The vegetables are dipped in with fingers or a fork.
Ingredients: 2 pcs peppers · 1 pcs fennel · 4 pcs celery · 3 pcs carrots · 1 bunch radishes · 200 g cabbage · 400 g potatoes · 2 pcs beetroot
Before you start
Cardoons are the original
The classic vegetable for bagna càuda is the cardoon — in Piedmont especially the cardo gobbo variety, eaten raw. It is hard to find outside Italy; fennel and celery are similarly crunchy and faintly bitter.
Salted anchovies are better
Salt-packed fillets have a cleaner, less fishy taste but need rinsing and boning. If you use tinned ones in oil, drain them — their oil is often of poor quality.
The sauce can be made ahead
Transfer the cooled sauce to a jar and keep it in the fridge for no more than 3–4 days — garlic in oil out of the fridge favours the growth of botulism bacteria, so never leave it at room temperature. Reheat very slowly, stirring: it stiffens and separates when cold, and stirring as it warms brings it back together.