Bagna Càuda

Anchovy and garlic melted into warm oil and kept warm at the table, never allowed to fry.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

• 12 cloves garlic, peeled and green shoot removed
• 300 ml whole milk, for softening the garlic, which is discarded
• 12 salted anchovy fillets, rinsed
• 250 ml olive oil
• 30 g butter
• raw vegetables to dip: peppers, fennel, celery, cardoon

Method

1. Simmer the garlic in the milk for 20 minutes until a knife goes through it with no resistance, then drain and throw the milk away. That milk has taken the harshness out of twelve cloves of raw garlic; without it the sauce is savage.
2. Mash the garlic to a paste.
3. Put the oil, garlic and anchovies in a heavy pan over the LOWEST heat you can manage and stir until the anchovies dissolve, about 15 minutes.
4. IT MUST NEVER FRY. No bubble should break the surface. The oil is a medium, not a cooking heat, and the moment it gets hot enough to sizzle the garlic turns bitter and the anchovies go grainy.
5. Stir the butter in at the end until it melts.
6. Pour it into a warmed earthenware pot and keep it just warm over a candle at the table, with the raw vegetables round it.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes