How to Make Bagna Cauda, the Official Condiment of Luxury
Luxury is a tricky concept. Expensive items are often considered a luxury, but luxury has less to do with price than with time and effort. While it doesn’t have to be, having time to shop, cook and feed at a leisurely pace is quite luxurious, as are goods that take a lot of labor or time to get and prepare.
Making expensive food luxurious is easy, but making cheap food more expensive requires a little more skill, or at least an understanding of what cheap foods are capable of. Two such foods are garlic and salted fish, which naturally have a strong aroma. And when carefully cooked in olive oil, they form a tangled, melted mass known as bagna kauda and absolutely scream luxury.
It doesn’t look fancy, but don’t be fooled by that. Unlike flashy, brightly colored summer foods, bagna cauda is dull on the palate, with a natural earthy undertone that falls somewhere between brown and gray. It’s all a delicious substance that I think makes it stylish, and it gives more flavor than it should. Plus, it’s extremely easy to do.
There are many different recipes for making a cauda banana. The ingredients are always the same, but the proportions are different, so don’t get tied to the amount I list below. I like one can of anchovies and a whole head of garlic in mine, but others prefer two cans of fish and less garlic; I wash the garlic in a food processor, while others prefer to chop one garlic and chop the rest. Play around and see where you land.
Regardless of the proportions, you will start by cooking the garlic and anchovies in an olive oil bath over very low heat. Once the fish is melted and the garlic is tender, add a little oil at the last moment to create an aggressively flavorful, savory and decadent sauce. It’s traditionally eaten as a warm sauce with fall vegetables to celebrate the season in the Piedmont region of Italy, but it tastes great on any damn thing. Drizzle over potatoes, mix with pasta and a little parmac, or shake with a little vinegar for a quick salad dressing. To make this sumptuous condiment, you will need:
- 3/4 cup olive oil
- 10 large cloves of garlic
- 1 can of anchovies in oil (should be 12 in one can)
- 2 tablespoons butter
Heat olive oil in a small saucepan over very low heat (I used the lowest setting on my electric stove) and chop the garlic (you can use a knife or chop it in a food processor; the former will give you more uniform mince, but the latter is faster). Add the garlic and anchovies to the oil and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and kneading with a wooden spoon, until the garlic is flavorful and the anchovies are completely melted in the oil. (Be sure to keep the heat very low – the garlic shouldn’t brown even a little.)
Remove from heat, add butter and serve warm with plenty of vegetables (and possibly bread) to dip. It’s even better if you have a fondue pot that keeps things warm by candlelight. Leftover bagna cauda can be refrigerated for up to four days, but I honestly can’t imagine it taking that long.