Ingredients for 12 people:
12 heads of garlic
6 wine glasses of olive oil (extra virgin) and, if possible, a small glass of walnut oil
600 grams of Spanish red anchovies
Preparation:
Slice the peeled and germ-free garlic cloves. Place the garlic in a terracotta pot, add a glass of oil, and start cooking over very soft heat, stirring with a wooden spoon and ensuring it does not take on colour.
Then, add the desalted, deboned, and washed anchovies in red wine and dried, stirring them gently. Cover with the remaining oil and slowly cook the mixture for about half an hour, ensuring the sauce does not fry.
At the end of the cooking time, somebody who prefers a softer flavour can add a piece of very fresh butter.
Pour the sauce into the traditional “fojot,” small terracotta burners, and serve it with the following vegetables: raw vegetables: cardoons from Nizza, Jerusalem artichokes, hearts of white cabbage, endive, escarole, fresh and under-grape peppers, and raw spring onions quartered and immersed in Barbera wine; cooked vegetables include red beets, boiled potatoes, baked onions, fried pumpkin, and roasted peppers.
It is a tradition to collect the remaining sauce at the end by beating an egg into it.
Among the many gastronomic specialities of Piedmontese tradition, bagna cauda stands out as one of the most renowned, transcending regional borders.
The term “bagna cauda” is a dialectal expression that can be translated as “hot sauce”, that’s precisely what it is: a robust and flavorful sauce crafted from three fundamental ingredients: anchovies, olive oil, and garlic.
It may seem unusual to learn that anchovies are the main ingredient in a historical recipe from a landlocked region, but it is not. Indeed, anchovies feature in many preparations in the Monferrato cuisine for an exciting reason: in the past, salt was used for food preservation, and this salt was imported to Piedmont from the nearby salt flats of Provence and Nice.
The route taken by salt transporters became known as the “Strada Salis”, or the salt road, precisely: a road, already mentioned in some documents from the 13th century, that connected Provence and Nice with the first valleys of Piedmont, eventually reaching Cuneo and then Asti.
However, salt importation was subject to tariffs, significantly increasing its cost. To circumvent this problem, merchants would transport salt in barrels and use salted anchovies from the coastal stretch between Barcelona and Toulon to cover and conceal it from the view of customs officers.
The bagna cauda is typically a dish enjoyed during the cold season. Since past centuries, vine growers celebrated the end of the grape harvest, and the tapping of new wine by organizing feasts featuring vegetables dipped in this flavorful sauce. Even today, bagna cauda remains the quintessential Piedmontese dish for conviviality, prepared between autumn and winter with seasonal vegetables.
Originally, bagna cauda was served in a single terracotta container, known as a dian, placed at the centre of the table and kept warm by a terracotta heater filled with embers. All diners would then dip their vegetable pieces into the communal container. For hygienic and practical reasons, this folkloric tradition has gradually faded, replaced by the introduction of fojot (or fujot): small terracotta bowls, heated by an alcohol burner or a wax candle, distributed to each diner.
Do you want to taste Bagna Cauda ask Marc to prepare it when you come to Sapore Piemontese
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