Recipe of the Month

Bagna Caôda

Bagna Caoda

Piedmont's most famous dish must be the sociable bagna caôda, a sort of paysanne fondue where fresh vegetables are dipped into an unbeatable mixture of garlic, anchovy and olive oil (and sometimes truffles). Just as with fondue, the bagna caôda is placed in the centre of the table and everyone dips in their vegetables and bread. The best vegetables to serve are raw cardoon (when available!, the Piedmontese love it), raw cabbage, raw pepper or cooked and pickled pepper, raw celery, fennel either raw or cooked, raw turnip or cooked scorzenera roots. One of our many leaflets from Slow Food suggests Dolcetto d'Alba as a good wine to serve with a bagna caôda. The main thing to remember when making Bagna Caôda is not to overheat the mixture, you don't want to fry it, and add the olive oil and anchovy fillets just before serving

This recipe for Bagna Caôda comes from Carluccio's "Complete Italian Food" by Antonio & Priscilla Carluccio, published last year by Quadrille.

Bagna Caôda
125g butter
6 garlic cloves, crushed
300g anchovy fillets (best taken from salted anchovies)
200ml extra-virgin olive oil
raw mixed vegetables

Put the butter and garlic in a terracotta pot over a very gentle flame and leave, stirring occasionally, until the garlic has dissolved in the hot, but not boiling, butter. Add the anchovy fillets and the oil and continue to cook extremely gently until the mixture becomes creamy.

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