Bagna Cauda (hot sauce)

Today is the last day off , I took some days off after "befana" public holiday. So I decided to prepare the bagna calda, literally hot sauce.
This is a tradictional food of Turin , in dialet is called bagna cauda. Is very good in winter time and as the name suggest is better to serve it very hot.
Writing this post I put also Metallica black album, you know.. I needed something strong cos there s a lot of garlic in the recipe. :-)

Origin of this dishes are from middleages, I read that farmers made it to celebrate the broach of new wine. I read also that people of piedmont and turin originally made it adding to Anchovies and oil from genoa to the garlic and milk from farms near turin.
In france there's a similar recipe called "anchoiade" but  they use water and lemon instead of milk .
Turin is very near to France and we have some tradictional food in common or similar.

Ingredient for 4 persons :
Anchovies 150g (under salt kind)
Garlic  7 big cloves
Extra-virgin olive oil (half glass)
milk (1 glass)
some butter (50 g)
some milk cream (is optional if you like it more creamy)
Varius kind of vegetables.

Clean the  Anchovies with some red wine and trow the fishbone.
(Sometimes I use also under oil Anchovies, but under salt kind is better.)

After this clean the garlic pieces from the skin, this is a job quite boring. :-)

 

Cut Garlic in little pieces and put it in a large pot.

Add the milk (must be enough to cover garlic).

Left the garlic resting in the milk for at least one hour , this is important if you don't want to kill people around you just with a breath for about 2 days. After this the garlic wil be softer and it will loose his "power".
Put the olive oil and the butter in a little pot and warm it till the butter will be totally melted.

Now you can cook the garlic: middle - low fire will be ok.
Add the milk cream now if you like. The milk cream will make it much creamy (of course). This is optional and is not from the original recipe I think.
Mix the milk and garlic with a spoon, it will need about 20 - 30 minutes to be cooked. After 20 minutes try to squeeze a piece of garlic with a fork. If it will squeeze easy and it will appear soft is done.
Now  you can decide: you can squeeze all the garlic with the fork (more tradictional) or you can take an handy mincer :-) and mince it all . I always use the mincer :-))
It will make a fabulous cream of milk and garlic. You can also put this in a water gun and use during Halloween night to get candies . :-)

Is time to add the oil with butter mealted, add it and mix with the spoon , keep cooking it with the fire low.
Add the Anchovies and keep mixing till the Anchovies will be totally melted.

The bagna calda is ready. We have particular plates called "fujot" with the place for a candle , the candle will keep the sauce warm. You can put veggy in the sauce and enjoy it!!

The vegetables:
What ever is in season and suits your fancy, traditionally one would expect:

Raw, cut into strips or bite-sized pieces:

• 2 cardoons (if these are not available where you live substitute 3-4 sticks white celery)
• 2 yellow bell peppers
• A head of Savoy cabbage

Cooked and cut into bite-sized pieces:

• 2 baked beets
• 2 roasted bell peppers
• 5 roasted onions
• A head of cauliflower, steamed and broken into florets
• 6 potatoes, steamed
• 6 carrots, steamed

This is probably a very healty food cos of garlic (that's a natural antibiotic ) cos of Anchovies and because of a lot of vegetables.

If tonight you ll have to fight with vampires this is probably the best dish to protect you, just a breath and they ll fall down like flies .. :-)
But if you want to kiss someone don't eat it!!