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Bagna cauda (sauce chaude à l'anchois et à l'ail)

Name: Bagna cauda (sauce chaude à l'anchois et à l'ail)
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: IT
Ingredients: 120 g anchovy fillets in oil, drained (or salt-packed, rinsed and boned); 150 g garlic cloves, peeled and any green sprout removed; 300 ml whole milk; 200 ml extra virgin olive oil, mild; 50 g unsalted butter; 2 red or yellow bell peppers, cut into strips; 2 stalks celery, cut into sticks; 1 small head Belgian chicory or Treviso radicchio, leaves separated; 200 g Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and thinly sliced; 1/4 head white cabbage, leaves separated; 4 small waxy potatoes, boiled and quartered; to serve crusty bread or grissini

25m

Prépa

35m

Cuisson

Portions

Moyen

Difficulté

Une sauce piémontaise à l'ail adouci, aux anchois fondus et à l'huile d'olive tiède, pour tremper des légumes.

#italian#piedmont#dip#anchovy#garlic#vegetables#shared-plate

Portions

6portions

Ingrédients

Nutrition

calories480

protein9g

carbs20g

fat38g

fiber4g

Par portion

Étapes

Mellow the garlic

Put the garlic cloves in a small saucepan and cover with the milk. Bring to a bare simmer and cook on low heat for 20 minutes, until the cloves are completely soft; this soaking in milk takes away the raw sharpness so the finished dip is sweet, not harsh. Drain, discarding the milk.

150 g garlic cloves
300 ml whole milk

✅ C'est prêt quand : the garlic cloves are soft enough to crush between two fingers and smell mild and sweet, not sharp

⏱20:00

Mash to a paste

Tip the drained garlic onto a board and mash it to a smooth paste with the back of a knife or a fork. Set the paste aside; it should have no lumps left so it melts evenly into the oil later.

150 g garlic (softened, from step 1)

✅ C'est prêt quand : the garlic is a smooth, lump-free paste

Melt the anchovies

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Finish the sauce

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Prepare the vegetables

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Keep warm and serve

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Mellow the garlic

150 g garlic cloves
300 ml whole milk

✅ C'est prêt quand : the garlic cloves are soft enough to crush between two fingers and smell mild and sweet, not sharp

⏱20:00

Mash to a paste

Tip the drained garlic onto a board and mash it to a smooth paste with the back of a knife or a fork. Set the paste aside; it should have no lumps left so it melts evenly into the oil later.

150 g garlic (softened, from step 1)

✅ C'est prêt quand : the garlic is a smooth, lump-free paste

Melt the anchovies

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Finish the sauce

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Prepare the vegetables

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Keep warm and serve

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History & Culture

The Story Behind the Dish

📍 Piedmont, especially the Langhe and Monferrato hills📅 Traditional peasant and harvest dish, old enough that its exact beginnings are undocumented🧄 IT

Bagna cauda grew out of a region of farmers and winemakers who had plenty of garlic, salted anchovies brought up from Liguria along old salt trading routes, and, before olive trees reached Piedmont in any quantity, local walnut oil. The dish was built to feed a table of workers at the end of the grape harvest, with cheap, hardy vegetables stretched by one rich, warming sauce.

It is still eaten the same communal way today: one pot of sauce kept hot in the middle of the table over a small flame, everyone leaning in to dip their own vegetables, bread used at the end to mop up what is left.

⭐ Why It's Famous

It turns a handful of pantry staples, garlic, anchovies and good oil, into a rich, savoury sauce that makes even plain raw vegetables feel like a feast, and the shared pot makes every meal around it feel like an occasion.

💡 Fun Fact

Older Piedmontese recipes used walnut oil instead of olive oil, since olives have never grown easily in Piedmont's cooler hills; olive oil only became the usual choice once trade with Liguria made it easy to bring in.

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