Piedmontese bagna càuda: garlic, anchovies and oil cooked slowly in earthenware, kept hot on the fujot for dipping cardoons, peppers and autumn vegetables.
Introduction
Bagna càuda is not something you eat: it is something you do together. In the middle of the table, or in front of each guest, sits an earthenware fujot warmed by a candle, and inside it a sauce of garlic, anchovies and oil simmers gently, a sauce the name describes to the letter — in Piedmontese, «hot bath». All around are baskets of autumn vegetables for dipping: raw hunchback cardoon, roasted peppers, Jerusalem artichokes, cabbage, potatoes and onions from the oven. You start in the middle of the morning or the middle of the afternoon and finish when the sauce is almost dry, and then you break an egg into it.
The recipe is made of three ingredients and a single rule: the sauce must never fry. The garlic is cooked until it melts, not until it takes on colour, and the anchovies break down in warm oil as you stir, not in boiling oil: too lively a flame turns them bitter and makes the garlic acrid, and it is a mistake that no addition can correct. Here we give the version most common in homes today, with the garlic first softened in milk, which makes it digestible without taking away its character. Anyone who wants the version of the old farmhouses will find the difference among the variations.
In the glass we put the Barbera d'Asti DOCG Superiore by Tenuta Vallone, which is made at Conzano, in the Monferrato Casalese, where bagna càuda has always gone with the new wine. Into the earthenware pot goes the Veneto del Grappa Extra Virgin Olive Oil by Oro de Pòe, sweet and fruity, which the slow cooking makes round.
The Story of Bagna Càuda
Bagna càuda is a dish of the mountains and the countryside made with a fish from the sea, and the contradiction resolves itself along the salt roads. Piedmont had no outlet to the sea, and salt came from Liguria and Provence, loaded onto mules together with barrels of salted anchovies. From the valleys around Cuneo, and in particular from the Val Maira, came the acciugai: travelling sellers who went round the Piedmontese countryside with a cart of anchovies and preserved fish, and who for generations carried that fish to the farmhouses furthest from the sea. To this day bagna càuda is made with salted anchovies, not with anchovies in oil, and that is the direct legacy of that trade.
The rest came from the vegetable garden and the season. Bagna càuda has always been the dish of autumn, of the days when the new wine was drawn and the last vegetables were gathered before the frost: the hunchback cardoon of Nizza Monferrato, buried at the end of summer so that it blanches and turns tender, the peppers of Carmagnola, the Jerusalem artichokes. It was a peasant meal, eaten in company from a single pan set on a brazier, and for that very reason it has never had just one recipe: every village defends its own dose of garlic, some soften the garlic in milk, some add a little butter or a drop of walnut oil, some want it almost liquid and some as thick as a cream. Today the ritual survives above all around Asti and in the Monferrato, where in November bagna càuda is still an invitation more than a recipe.
Ingredients
For the bagna càuda
- garlic6 heads (about 300 g)
- whole milk500 ml
- salted anchovies300 g
- Filtered Veneto Extra Virgin Olive Oil del Grappa 500ml400 ml
The raw vegetables
- hunchback cardoon1 head
- Jerusalem artichokes400 g
- raw peppers, yellow and red2
- Savoy cabbage hearts1
- fennel bulbs2
- lemon juice, for the cardoon1
The cooked vegetables
- peppers for roasting3
- potatoes4
- whole onions4
- cooked beetroots2
To serve
- sliced country breadto taste
- Yeast-Free Crackers with Extra Virgin Olive Oil 150g1 pack
- eggs, for the bottom of the fujot6
Equipment Needed
- Heavy-based earthenware pan
- Small saucepan for the garlic in milk
- Earthenware fujot with a candle, or a tabletop burner
- Fork and wooden spoon
- Baking tray for the cooked vegetables
- Knife and chopping board
Tip: The vessel matters more than the recipe. Earthenware heats slowly and holds the heat for a long time, which is exactly what a sauce that must never fry needs. In a thin pan the garlic takes on colour in a few minutes and turns bitter: if you do not have an earthenware pot, use a heat diffuser under the heaviest-based pan you own.
How to Make Bagna Càuda — Piedmontese Recipe
The garlic in milk
Peel the garlic cloves, cut them in half lengthwise and remove the green sprout in the middle, which is the most pungent and least digestible part. Put them in a small saucepan, cover them with milk and bring to the gentlest boil; leave to simmer over a low heat for about 30 minutes, until a clove crushes effortlessly with a fork. Drain the garlic and throw away the milk, which by now has taken on the harshness of the garlic.
Chef's tip: If the milk tends to rise, leave the saucepan uncovered and turn the flame down further. The garlic does not need to cook quickly: the slower it goes, the sweeter it stays.
The anchovies
While the garlic cooks, rinse the anchovies under running water to remove the salt, open them out like a book with your fingers, remove the backbone and the tail and rinse the fillets again. Dry them well with kitchen paper, fillet by fillet: any water left behind spits in the hot oil and cooks the anchovies instead of letting them melt.
Chef's tip: Choose large, pinkish salted anchovies. Those already in oil will do in an emergency, but they are softer and less flavourful, and you can taste it in the sauce.
The bagna
Put the drained garlic in the earthenware pan with a third of the oil and crush it with the fork until it becomes a cream, over the lowest heat. Add the anchovies and the rest of the oil and keep stirring with the wooden spoon: within a few minutes the fillets break down and disappear into the sauce. Let it go for about 30 minutes, always over the lowest heat, stirring often. The bagna is ready when it is thick, a light hazelnut colour, and the oil on the surface does not bubble: if it starts to fry, take the pan off the heat at once.
Chef's tip: Do not add salt: the anchovies already bring enough, and the sauce concentrates as it sits on the fujot. Taste only at the end, by dipping a vegetable and not a teaspoon.
At the table
While the bagna cooks, roast the peppers in the oven at 220 °C until the skin comes away, then peel them and cut them into strips; bake the whole onions and the potatoes in the oven too. Clean the cardoon, cut it into sticks and keep it in water and lemon so that it does not turn black; cut the rest of the raw vegetables into wedges or sticks. Pour the bagna into the fujots and bring it to the table with the vegetables and the bread. At the end of the meal, break an egg into the sauce left at the bottom of the fujot and scramble it until it sets.
Chef's tip: The candle under the fujot is there to keep the sauce hot, not to cook it. If bubbles appear on the surface, move the pot away from the flame for a few minutes or blow out the candle.
Wine to Pair with Bagna Càuda
Bagna càuda puts almost every wine in difficulty, and it is worth understanding why before choosing the bottle. In the fujot there are three things working together: the oil, which coats the mouth and leaves it greasy after every dip; the anchovy, which brings a very high savouriness and an underlying taste of fish; and the garlic, which even after the long cooking in milk remains the dominant flavour and keeps coming back. Tannin is the first enemy: against the salt of the anchovy it turns rough, and with the fish it leaves a metallic aftertaste that spoils the next mouthful. The second is too obvious oak, which adds itself to the garlic instead of answering it. What is really needed is acidity, plenty of it, to lift the oil off the palate with every sip, and a fruit full enough not to vanish behind the garlic. It is no accident that in Piedmont this dish has always been drunk with the young, juicy reds of the house, Barbera and Grignolino, and not with the great Nebbiolos made for ageing: it is acidity that makes the match, not structure.
The Red We Recommend
Barbera d'Asti DOCG Superiore — Tenuta Vallone — The **Barbera d'Asti DOCG Superiore by Tenuta Vallone** is made at Conzano, in the Monferrato Casalese, which is to say the area where bagna càuda is the ritual of October and November, when the new wine is drawn and the cardoons are gathered. It has the gift of Barbera that this dish asks for more than any other: a high acidity, among the most pronounced of Italian reds, which with every sip takes the oil off the tongue and puts the mouth back in a state to taste the next vegetable. The grape's tannin is naturally restrained, so it does not turn rough on the anchovy, and the ripe red fruit the technical sheet describes — red flowers and ripe red fruits, which come back intensely on the palate — is full enough to stand up to the garlic without being covered. The Superiore version adds body and a full, enveloping sip, useful with the sweeter, denser vegetables, the roasted pepper and the Jerusalem artichoke. The limit has to be stated, because there is one: after thirteen months in steel the wine spends ten months in barriques and tonneaux, and the long vanilla finish that comes out of it adds nothing on the garlic; the 14% vol also makes itself felt next to a sauce this hot and savoury. That is why it is best served a little cooler than the sheet says, around 16 °C, and not opened too far in advance: it should reach the table with its freshness intact, not softened.
Want to know more about the grape? our guide to Barbera
The Territorial Alternative
Grignolino del Monferrato Casalese DOC 'Origine' — Tenuta Vallone — Same cellar, same commune, and for many Piedmontese the more classic answer of the two: the **Grignolino del Monferrato Casalese 'Origine'** is the wine that in the farmhouses of the Casalese goes on the table next to the fujot. It is a pale red, light ruby, that looks light and in the mouth is not entirely so: it has a lively acidity and a fine, dry tannin, born of the many grape seeds, which here does not work against the anchovy but cleans. Seventeen months in steel only, no wood: compared with the Superiore there is no vanilla to add to the garlic, and the spicy, peppery note of the grape, with its small red fruits, weaves well into the sauce instead of challenging it. The alcohol is lower too, 13,5% vol, and next to a dish this savoury you can feel it. The limit is the reverse of the virtue: the body is light, and if the bagna càuda is made thick, with plenty of oil and plenty of anchovies, or if the richer vegetables reach the table, the Grignolino holds up but does not fill, and there the Barbera does better. Rule of thumb: raw vegetables and a lean dip, Grignolino; cooked vegetables, roasted peppers and a full sauce, Barbera. Serve it cool, at 14 °C.
Want to know more about the grape? our guide to Grignolino
Craft Beer as an Alternative
Reckless Bock Beer — doppelbock — With bagna càuda a beer should not cut the fat by force of bitterness: an assertive hop, next to the garlic and the salt of the anchovy, makes everything harsher. The opposite road works better, the road of malt. The **Reckless Bock by Norah's Farm** is a strong malt beer in the Dunkel Bock style, deep copper, with notes of caramel and dried fruit, a barely hinted bitterness and a sweet finish. That sweetness is exactly what the dish lacks: it counterbalances the savouriness of the anchovy the way the sweet vegetables in the fujot do, and the caramel of the malt rhymes with the charred parts of the roasted pepper and with the baked onion. The carbonation and the creamy head do the rest, lifting the oil from the mouth between one dip and the next. Two limits, to be stated in full. The first is the alcohol: 7% vol in a beer can be felt, and next to a sauce this hot a small glass is wise. The second is that on the raw, slightly bitter vegetables, the cardoon and the endive, the sweetness of the malt comes through more than the match does: it is a beer for cooked vegetables. Serve it at 8-10 °C, not ice-cold, in a tulip glass.
Want to know more about the style? dark beers and doppelbocks
Serve It With
Bagna càuda is a whole meal and asks for no side dishes, but it does ask for bread: it is there to gather up the sauce left on the vegetables and to give a pause between one dip and the next. Piedmontese country bread, in thick slices and just a little stale, is the choice of the house. Alongside it, or for anyone who prefers something crunchy, the Yeast-Free Crackers with extra virgin olive oil by Bottega Bianchin work well: thin and dry, they dip like a vegetable without breaking, and their simple taste of oil adds nothing that quarrels with the garlic.
The real accompaniment, though, comes at the end, and it is the egg. When only a film of sauce is left in the fujot, you break an egg into it and scramble it with the fork until it sets: it gathers up all the remaining garlic and anchovy and closes the meal. In some areas, in the right season, a few shavings of white truffle are grated over that egg, and it is the only luxury this peasant dish allows itself.
Variations
- Without milk, the old way: the garlic is sliced thinly and put straight into the warm oil, over the lowest heat, until it turns soft and translucent, before the anchovies are added. It is more intense and less digestible, and it is the version many families in the Monferrato consider the only true one. It takes more patience: the garlic must not take on colour even at the edges.
- With butter: at the end of cooking a knob of butter is added, about 30 g, which makes the sauce rounder and helps it bind. It is a common addition around Cuneo; those who use it usually take away a little oil so as not to make it heavy.
- The next day: leftover bagna keeps in the fridge in a closed jar for two or three days. Gently reheated, it is an excellent dressing for short pasta, for fried eggs or for a plate of roasted peppers.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much garlic do you really need for bagna càuda?
The rule of the Piedmontese farmhouses is one head of garlic per person, and this recipe respects it: six heads for six servings. It seems an enormous amount, but with the long cooking the garlic loses almost all its harshness and becomes sweet and creamy. Anyone who is wary of it can go down to half a head per person; below that amount the sauce becomes an anchovy cream and is no longer bagna càuda.
Why is the garlic cooked in milk?
Slow cooking in milk takes away a good part of the garlic's harshness and softens it before it reaches the oil, and the milk that is thrown away carries off the most pungent part. The result is a more delicate bagna, easier to digest and eaten with less apprehension about the day after. It is not the oldest version, but today it is the most common in Piedmontese homes.
Which vegetables are used for bagna càuda?
The queen is the hunchback cardoon, raw, together with the Jerusalem artichoke. Then peppers, raw and roasted, Savoy cabbage, fennel, boiled or baked potatoes, baked onions and beetroots. Two things count: that they are autumn vegetables, crunchy or sweet, and that there is a balance between raw and cooked. Very watery vegetables, such as tomatoes, do not hold the sauce and cool it down.
What is the fujot, and can you do without it?
The fujot is the small earthenware pot with a candle underneath that keeps the bagna hot for the whole length of the meal. If you do not have one, an earthenware pan set on a tabletop burner turned to the minimum will do, or on a food warmer. What matters is that the sauce stays hot without boiling: cold, it sets; too hot, it fries and turns bitter.
Can it be made in advance?
Yes, and in fact it is a good idea. The bagna can be cooked a few hours ahead, left in the earthenware pot and reheated over the lowest heat before pouring it into the fujots, stirring. The cooked vegetables can be prepared in advance too. The raw ones, on the other hand, should be cut shortly before serving, and the cardoon kept in water and lemon until the last moment, because it turns black in a few minutes.
