Bagna cauda: the tasty recipe for Piedmontese hot sauce

The bagna cauda, or bagna caôda, is a typical preparation of Piedmontese cuisine. It’s a very tasty sauce based on salted anchovies, extra virgin olive oil And Garlic. Creamy and very tasty, this sauce has ancient origins and is used as an accompaniment to raw vegetables, such as fennel, carrots, peppers, celery and new onions, or cooked, for example onions, potatoes. porridge, cardoons and beets.

Bagna cauda literally means “spicy sauce”: it is in fact served hot in the fujot, the typical slow cookers which keep the heat, in which the guests briefly immerse the vegetables. Consumed by winegrowers at the end of the Middle Ages, to celebrate the tasting of new wine, it was for a long time the symbol of the poor and peasant tradition.

Today it is offered in many restaurants and trattorias in Piedmont, and is rightly considered one of the delicious dish and user-friendly. Particularly substantial, it is often consumed as single dish, but it can also be served as an aperitif during a dinner with friends.

Like all traditional recipes, there are many local variants, which mainly concern the quality of the oil, the use of boiled or raw vegetables, the use of garlic – if it is chopped, pounded or left whole – and the possible immersion in milk, to make it more digestible.

Find out how to make it by following our recipe step by step.

How to prepare the bagna cauda

Clean the garlic cloves by removing the outer skin (1).

Cut the wedges in half and also remove the central core (2).

Finely chop the garlic on a cutting board (3).

Put the garlic in a saucepan, preferably terracotta, and add the oil (4).

Cook over low heat for a few minutes (5), the garlic should not fry or take color.

After a few minutes, also add the anchovies (6).

Continue cooking for about 30 minutes, still over low heat, so that the garlic and anchovies can melt without burning or coloring (7).

The result should be a dark, creamy sauce (7).

Serve the bagna cauda hot (if possible inside the typical fujot) accompanied by a mixture of raw and cooked vegetables (9).

Advice

Before using them, you can marinate the salted anchovies in Red wine. Vegetables can be chosen according to tastes and seasonal availability: boiled potatoes or croutons will also do the trick.

storage

The bagna cauda must be eaten right now, but it can also be stored in the refrigerator for a few days at most. Freezing is not recommended.