The Best Bagna Cauda Recipe
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Recipe Overview
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Ingredients Needed
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8 garlic cloves (40g/1.4ozs)
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1 cup/250ml/8.8flozs milk (skim or full fat is fine)
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14 Sicilian anchovy fillets (55g/2ozs, tinned weight with oil around 95g/3.5ozs)
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2 tablespoons/30ml/1floz extra virgin olive oil
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40g/1.4ozs butter
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Crudites to serve (endive, carrot, fennel , cucumber, celery)
Step-By-Step Cooking Instructions
Softening the Garlic
Step 1 - Cut the garlic cloves in half and then place in a small saucepan with the milk. Bring to a simmer, place the lid on and simmer on low for 20 minutes until the garlic is soft.
Preparing the Anchovy Base
Step 2 - Drain the milk (use it for a white sauce/bechamel) and wash the saucepan. Place back on low heat and add the soft garlic cloves, drained anchovy fillets and extra virgin olive oil. Heat up and allow anchovies to soft and melt, it will only take 5 minutes or less for them to break down. Add the butter.
Blending and Serving
Step 3 - Tilt the saucepan on the side and puree with an immersion blender. Serve warm, ideally in a fondue pot above a flame.
Personal Note
I don't know if I mentioned before how in December I got myself a little Christmas project of renovating a sideboard. I have always wanted a refurbished Jacobean sideboard and our builder Peter and Mr NQN said that it would be easy enough.
I started off strong in early January by sanding the varnish off the drawers and doors but then this crazy Sydney weather intervened. We had a few good days of sun but mostly it was rainy or windy - to the point where the wind took down power lines and cut off internet etc. Soon it was the third week of January and I was just waiting for a day in which I could sit outside without being blown away or rained on. That day came on a Sunday. Mr NQN helped me bring the sideboard out and watched me as I sanded away.
"Are you having fun?" he asked.
"I HATE it. I have STRONG regrets," I told him in no uncertain terms. What was supposed to be a fun project had quickly soured to become a burden. Instead of giving me a nice diversion from work, it just added on more work. "All I want to do is relax in bed and watch Squid Games," I told him grumpily.
I think a part of him felt a bit bad for me as I had clearly bit off more than I could chew. So he grabbed the sander and started helping me. We worked on the sideboard together for 2 hours before I realised that it was time to make my bagna cauda for dinner.
Not wanting to disturb him or stop him doing the sanding I quietly slipped inside and put the first part on where you simmer the garlic cloves in milk. I came back outside a couple of minutes later and resumed sanding. After 20 minutes I did the second part of the recipe where I added the olive oil, anchovies and butter and blended it up. And this took about 5 minutes as did cutting up the crudites so that was a pre dinner snack ready without disturbing my help!
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried bagna cauda? Are you good at renovating and crafty things like that?