Italian cuisine · Salads & Mezze

Bagna Cauda

Warm Piedmontese dip made of garlic, anchovies, olive oil and butter, served with raw and cooked vegetables.

Ingredients · for 4 servings

• 12 anchovy fillets
• 8 garlic cloves
• 250 ml milk
• 200 ml olive oil
• 60 g butter
• 3 carrots
• 3 celery stalks
• 1 bell pepper
• 1 fennel bulb

Instructions

1. Peel the garlic cloves, halve lengthwise and remove the green germ – it makes the dip bitter.
2. Simmer the garlic in the milk over very low heat for 20 min. until soft enough to crush with light pressure, then drain off the milk.
3. Roughly chop the anchovy fillets and put them in a small pot with the softened garlic and the butter.
4. Add the olive oil and melt everything over the lowest heat for 10–15 min., stirring constantly, into a creamy sauce – it must never boil, or it turns bitter.
5. Trim the carrots, celery, pepper and fennel and cut into finger-length sticks.
6. Bring the bagna cauda warm to the table in a small earthenware pot over a small burner and serve with the vegetables for dipping.