Question Number 1
Garlic? No.
Though Italian cooking has a
reputation for being garlicky, few dishes have more than one or two cloves, a
fact that led one cookbook author to tell his reader that they shouldn't fear
the stuff. There are some notable exceptions to the rule, however. For example,
Bagna Caoda, Piemonte's sauce of conviviality and well being:
Bagna Caoda, literally "hot sauce", as arises from the interaction between land and sea, with the anchovies and olive oil brought overland by the Ligurian traders combining delightfully with the garlic grown inland. Though one normally doesn't associate garlic with Piemontese cooking, this is the exception that confirms the rule, and is also the symbol of joyful conviviality, the classic centerpiece around which friends gather to renew the bonds that tie, serving the sauce in a bowl, and providing the diners with raw vegetables to dip in it, bread to accompany it, and rivers of Barbera or Dolcetto to wash it down.
To make a Bagna Caoda for six will take about 2 hours, and require:
- 5 heads garlic
- 3 cups good extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 pound salted anchovies (buy these at a delicatessen, or use canned anchovies packed in oil if you cannot find the variety just packed in salt)
- 1 quart fresh whole milk
- 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, a head of cauliflower, steamed, 6 potatoes, steamed, 6 carrots, steamed.
Begin by peeling the heads of garlic. Set the cloves in a pot with the milk, and simmer them for an hour. While the garlic is simmering hold the anchovies by their tails and run your fingers down their sides to eliminate most of the salt that's sticking to them, then split, scale, and bone them. Next, prepare the vegetables, and arrange them on a serving dish.
After the garlic has simmered discard the milk and crush the cloves with a fork in a bowl. Work the olive oil into the garlic together with the anchovy filets, and stir the mixture over a gentle flame until the fish filets have come apart and the sauce is uniformly creamy.
The Bagna Caoda is now ready; divvy it out into 6 bowls, and serve it with the vegetables and freshly baked bread.
This recipe is translated from Slow Food's Ricette delle Osterie di Langa, a collection of recipes from the best restaurants around Alba; the editors note that a bagna caoda is wonderful if you don't have to meet someone later "for business or randy pleasures," and that a good bagna caoda can easily be expanded into a meal, with the assistance of hot bowls of broth and pears cooked in wine. One could certainly do much worse.
The editors also note that recipes from the 1800s call for just cardoons and peppers as vegetables, and that they were aimed at sterner stomachs: No simmering the garlic in milk to temper it -- half was mashed and half was sliced finely, but all was raw until it hit the oil, and no boning of the anchovies -- the excess salt was wiped away before they went into the oil, and the crunchiness of the bones was much appreciated. Rather than go into individual bowls, the bagna caoda would go into a larger bowl all would dip their vegetables into, taking breaks every now and again when the sauce was reheated.
