Bagna cauda or, more properly, bagna caôda, means ‘hot sauce’ in English. It refers to a typical Piedmontese dish for communal eating that is popular in cold weather months, a kind of cross between fondue and pinzimonio, if I can put it that way. It is, quite simply, a collection of raw and steamed vegetables, which you dip into a garlic and anchovy sauce that you keep warm like a cheese fondue in a little terracotta pot placed over a flame.
Here’s the recipe for making the sauce:
Ingredients
Serves 4 or more
- 4 (or more) cloves of garlic
- 100g (4 oz.) fillets of anchovy
- 200 ml (1 cup or small glassful) olive oil
- 50g (2 oz.) butter
- Freshly ground pepper
Directions
Pour the olive oil into a small saucepan and heat gently. Add the garlic, which you can either slightly crush, for a milder flavor, or slice or even finely mince for a much more assertive flavor. Keep the flame quite low. You are infusing the oil with the flavor of the garlic, which should not brown at all. (If you like you can remove some or all of the garlic at this point to avoid its flavor from becoming overpowering.) After about 5 minutes, add the anchovy fillets and butter and continue to simmer very gently for another 10 minutes, until the fillets have completely melted and the various flavors have been well amalgamated. Season with a bit of ground pepper.
Pour the sauce into a small fondue pot, preferably made of terracotta, and keep warm at the table. Regulate the flame so that the sauce simmers gently all the while you are eating. Serve with various raw and steamed vegetables in season, which you dip into the sauce.
Notes on Bagna Cauda
The typical vegetables that go with bagna cauda include roasted or raw red peppers, cardoons, artichokes, steamed potatoes, steamed or raw carrots, steamed cauliflower, fennel, celery or leafy vegetables like savoy cabbage, radicchio and endive. Harder vegetables are best lightly steamed, (or roasted) while larger vegetables should be cut into bit sized pieces or sticks. To this dish I added a somewhat unusual choice of Brussel sprouts—they were delicious in this sauce. I also used a bit of frisée, which go very well with the anchovies. But really just about any seasonal vegetable would be fine.
There are lots of variations in making the sauce. While the measurements are quite flexible, as is the order of ingredients: whether you add the butter or oil, or the garlic or the anchovy first or at the same time. But most of the variations revolve around different ways to ‘soften’ the flavor of the garlic. The recipe above calls for adding the garlic, raw, to the sauce, but many recipes call on you to simmer the garlic beforehand, for up to an hour in milk or cream. The garlic is then drained and crushed or puréed, and the recipe continues from there. With this method, you can use larger amounts of garlic, as the simmering considerably softens the garlic’s pungency. I even found this remarkable recipe for bagna cauda from the late Kyle Phillips of About Italian Food, which calls for an enormous amount of garlic—5 heads (yes, heads, not cloves)—that simmer in milk for an hour before proceeding with the sauce. Some recipes also call for adding a bit of milk or cream at the end, before serving, which also is meant to smooth out the flavor. (Being a garlic hound, I like my garlic ‘straight up’.)
In Italy, it is quite usual these days to serve bagna cauda in individual little terracotta fondue pots called forneletti (known in Piedmontese as fujòt). Unfortunately, I didn’t bring any back from Italy and they are apparently impossible to find here in the US, so—as you will see above—I improvised with a terracotta soup bowl placed over a fondue burner. A regular fondue pot would also do fine. The one from Emile Henry is made from terracotta and is the best one I’ve seen for the purpose on the market here.
While usually categorized as an antipasto, bagna cauda can easily serve as a meal, followed by some stewed fruit, for example pere in vino rosso. Serve with a robust red wine and lots of water, too, to quench your considerable thirst.
Ingredients
- 4 (or more) cloves of garlic
- 100g (4 oz.) fillets of anchovy
- 200 ml (1 cup or small glassful) olive oil
- 50g (2 oz.) butter
- Freshly ground pepper
Directions
- Pour the olive oil into a small saucepan and heat gently. Add the garlic, which you can either slightly crush, for a milder flavor, or slice or even finely mince for a much more assertive flavor. Keep the flame quite low. You are infusing the oil with the flavor of the garlic, which should not brown at all. (If you like you can remove some or all of the garlic at this point to avoid its flavor from becoming overpowering.) After about 5 minutes, add the anchovy fillets and butter and continue to simmer very gently for another 10 minutes, until the fillets have completely melted and the various flavors have been well amalgamated. Season with a bit of ground pepper.
- Pour the sauce into a small fondue pot, preferably made of terracotta, and keep warm at the table. Regulate the flame so that the sauce simmers gently all the while you are eating. Serve with various raw and steamed vegetables in season, which you dip into the sauce.
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Cozze alla tarantina (Mussels Taranto Style)
Cavolfiore in salsa di acciughe (Cauliflower in Anchovy Sauce)
Ossobuco di tacchino (Turkey Ossobuco)
Risotto agli asparagi (Asparagus Risotto)
Calamari ripieni (Stuffed Calamari)
Pici all’aglione
Fiori di zucca alla ligure (Ligurian-Style Zucchini Blossoms)
Peperoni imbottiti alla napoletana
Filetti di baccalà (Fried Salt Cod Filets)
Lasagnette alla cacciatora col pollo (Pasta Cacciatore)
Carne cruda all’albese
21 Comments on “Bagna cauda”
I have made bagna cauda many times and I love it. This is how I got 5years olds to eat veggies, dip it in the sauce amd munch of course I also allowed them dip crusty bread as well. That helped. Love it!
Your recipes always evoke some family memory for me and this is no different. I have fond memories of eating this in Torino on a cold winter's night.
We are a big fondue family and this looks like a fantastic alternative.
I love bagna cauda and all the veggies that go with it! The dipping sauce is similar to an aioli but with the addition of anchovies, no? Beautiful presentation and photograph, too!
Thanks, folks, for all the kind comments! It really is a fun kind of meal. And tasty, too! … as Lucy once said. (That's joke for the old folks out there.)
Frank-
Did you make that wonderful Carravaggio fruit still life in the photo?
Interesting recipe and what a great dish to share with friends and family.
This is just in time for the buffet table when the whole family arrives for Thanksgiving weekend! Looks festive and would even work for some of our vegetarians. Sadly they will miss out on the fabulous rich sauce.
I love making this with artichokes! Yum! 🙂
I have to say your presentation is awesome, the food looks great. I would love to try this recipe but I know I would probably not make it as nice and neat as yours.
Regards, FoodReview
Could I possibly eat this while taking a hot bath?!
… Could be heavenly! :o)
My parents are from Italy…we LOVE Bagna Cauda…however we add a can of Italian Tuna fish… and along with the veggies we also dip a thick crust white pizza….. The best for Christmas Eve and New Years Eve….
Good stuff here. I've been enjoying what I've been reading!
Oh oh oh do I love Bagna cauda. I could drink the stuff. Drool worthy post!
I love fondue and your bagna cauda is something I have to try. What a great dish to serve for a dinner party. Look delicious, and I love all of the colors in your photo. Thanks for sharing.
you amaze me, this before meal course is fun and exciting, would be a nice change for informal get-to-gathers…
Bagna Cauda would be terrific on this cold, foggy day in Seattle!
This sounds wonderful, I can't wait to try it!
Thank you for sharing! I think this would be a fun, tasty dish for a small dinner party.
Okay, I have to try this! We are a big fondue family and this looks like a fantastic alternative.