Bagna càuda

The story

Bagna càuda is a Piedmontese sauce of garlic, anchovies and olive oil kept warm at the table while everyone dips vegetables into it. Its anchovies came from outside the region, many of them from the nearby Côte d’Azur, Savoy territory until 1860. Salted anchovies arrived in barrels along the old salt routes and were sold in the villages by itinerant anchovy sellers with horse- or ox-drawn carts; a local legend says the anchovy trade was a way to move salt past heavy duties. Farm families ate it in November to mark the end of the grape harvest, and Asti still holds a Bagna Cauda Day in late November or early December. The sauce was once set out in one shared earthenware pot, the dian, and is now often served in individual fujot, small earthenware pots, one for each guest. In 2005 the Accademia Italiana della Cucina registered a reference recipe with a notary in Costigliole d’Asti: per person, one head of garlic, about half a glass of oil and red Spanish anchovies rinsed in red wine. The classic dippers are the hunchbacked cardoons of Nizza Monferrato, with sunchokes, cabbage hearts, peppers and potatoes. Plan it as the whole meal for a cold evening and pour a Barbera d’Asti.