Sources and image credits — Bagna càuda: a warm sauce in the middle of the table
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Our own AI-generated image.
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Our own AI-generated image.
Home › All stories › Bagna càuda: a warm sauce in the middle of the table
Bagna càuda, Piedmontese for ‘warm sauce’, is according to the Accademia Italiana della Cucina the most characteristic dish of the cuisine around Asti. It began as a sauce of local olive oil with plenty of garlic. The anchovy came later, with the anchovy traders who travelled the salt road through the Maritime Alps. It is a dish for the cold months, from September to spring. The canonical recipe, registered with a notary in Asti in 2005, allows 12 heads of garlic and 600 g of anchovies for 12 people. Versions in which the garlic is first boiled in milk are jokingly called ‘heretical’ there. Our home version is one of those heretical ones: with milk and with about half the garlic and anchovy per person.
Image credits
Our own AI-generated illustration accompanying the recipe.
An earthenware pot of warm, light brown bagna càuda over a tealight, surrounded by strips of red pepper, cauliflower, beetroot, Jerusalem artichoke, cabbage leaf and bread.
Soft boiled garlic cloves and anchovy fillets in olive oil in a small pan over a low heat.