PIEDMONT BAGNA CAUDA: AUTHENTIC AND TRADITIONAL RECIPE FROM PIEDMONT

In Piedmont, the cold naturally calls for bagna cauda. Oil, garlic, anchovies, seasonal vegetables, good wine and friendship: these are the ingredients of one of the most famous regional dishes in Italy, celebrated for more than ten years during the Bagna Cauda Day.

Every year, at the end of November and the end of January, more than 150 restaurants, historic wineries and agriturismi around the world take part in this friendly celebration, bringing together up to 20,000 guests. This success can be explained by the deep attachment of the Piedmontese to their roots, even abroad. As Bruno Lauzi said, “Piedmont is this curious Brazil which every day showcases the quiet madness of the Piedmontese”: discreet, but animated by a joyful passion for life.

A tradition born in Asti

The idea of Bagna Cauda Day was born at the initiative of the Cultural Association Astigiani. Asti has always been a land of passage and trade, particularly for salt and anchovies. Today, this celebration extends throughout Piedmont, the Aosta Valley, Liguria and even abroad – as far as China, Japan or New York. For around €30, you reserve your place and receive a large fabric bib, the emblem of this popular festival. Three versions are offered: the “classic” (following the original recipe), the “heretic” (with softened garlic) and the “atheist”, without garlic.

What is bagna cauda?

Bagna cauda – literally “hot bath” – is a perfect sharing dish. This is a hot sauce made fromolive, anchovy and garlic oil, served in a fujot, a small terracotta container kept warm by a candle. Seasonal vegetables are dipped in it: cardoons, cabbage, peppers, turnips, potatoes, onions, leeks, Jerusalem artichokes…and many more. Each family has its own version, sometimes enriched withwalnut oil or original vegetables like radishes or fried squash. Traditionally, we finish the meal by cooking a scrambled egg in the bottom of the sauce, according to peasant custom.

The ancient origins of the dish

Some see in the bagna cauda a heritage of garum roman, a sauce made from fermented fish intestines. The use of salted anchovies could therefore be a reminiscence of this. Historically, the diffusion of anchovies in Piedmontese cuisine is linked to Salt Ways : the mountain people exchanged wheat and wine for salt, oil and salted fish. This trade has shaped regional gastronomy.

From the nobility to the peasant table

In the 19th century^e century, Piedmontese cooks finally codified the recipe mixing garlic and anchovies. In The Piedmontese cook perfected in Paris, we already find sauces close to bagna cauda, ​​first without garlic, then with. Little by little, this dish leaves bourgeois kitchens to become the convivial dish of the grape harvest and the peasant winter. It is then consumed from the time of the first vinifications until spring.

Bagna cauda has thus become a strong symbol: that of a people attached to the land, to the warmth of home and to the pleasure of sharing a simple but profound dish, a true emblem of Piedmontese culture.

Original source: La Cucina Italiana – Bagna cauda piemontese, sua Maestà: the ricetta depositata