Bagna Cauda (Bagna Caoda)

Northern Italian Fondue from Piedmont (Keto Friendly!)

Bagna Cauda is one of our treasured Italian family traditions. It means “Hot Dip” and is from the Piedmont Region of Italy. My family are Northern Italians from Asti, Italy and Asti is smack in the middle of the Piedmont Region. Sitting on the border of France and Switzerland you can see how this unique Italian specialty came to be influenced by its fondue loving neighbors. The northern Italian gave their own spin to the beloved fondue by making it with butter, garlic and anchovies.

It appears to have originated around the 16th century during the new wine harvest, so is often served in the Autumn or Winter. It came to signify friendship and joy and was enjoyed by the peasants as the aristocrats rejected it because of the heady smell of garlic. Well, that pretty well sums it up for our family, just average working class people and a love of garlic!

Even though olive oil is the “norm” in Italy, up here in the Piedmont region we have more mountains than olive groves and that means cows and sheep, just like our neighbors. So this dish is made with butter, not olive oil.

My grandfather along with his brother and parents returned to Italy from America when they were just young boys. Unfortunately WWI happened with all of the deprivations of war and they all had to stay with no chance to return to America. My grandfather, Mario, returned on the first ship he could when he turned 18 but his parents and brother, Luigi, had to stay longer. It must have been during that time that my great uncle Luigi developed the love of Bagna Cauda. He would keep an ongoing supply of the fondue in his refrigerator and would often make a little appetizer for himself.

My extended family turned it into a family tradition by eating it each year. They would invite friends and family and line up folding tables in the garage with electric fondue pots all plugged in and bubbling away, filling the air with the strong scent of garlic. There would be bowls of veggies ready to be fixed to the end of a fondue fork and plunged into the garlicky fondue pot.

It was a fun and festive affair with Italian music inviting us to dance in merriment. We all started with a crusty piece of French bread in one hand that acted as the plate and a fondue fork in the other. There are no chairs during Bagna Cauda, rather you stand at your fondue pot battling it out with your family members sharing the pot with you. There was always a debate about how hot the pot should be. Someone would decide to turn up the heat so the cooking of the veggie would be faster but this inevitably resulted in an overly bubbling pot causing dissension in the group.

But it was all part of the loud Italian fun. There was also strict rules like not throwing veggies in the pot that were not fixed on the end of the fondue fork, and you must man your fork at all times. If items are thrown into the pot, you will end up with a really gross “soup”. No, you must stand by your fork with the item attached until it was ready to eat, then you would bring it to your bread and let it cool there until it it was time to lift it to your mouth. This is also an important step if you don’t want to burn your mouth. It was also strictly against the rules to have more than one fork in the pot. Of course these rules were in a constant state of being broken thus erupting in argument, yelling and laughter. It’s all part of the fun for Italians if everyone is yelling at each other in gest.

Originally Bagna Cauda was just an appetizer with veggies like napa (curly) cabbage, bell peppers, broccoli and cauliflower. But over the years we amped it up like American families always do to the “Old World” traditions. Now we serve it up with potatoes, asparagus, green beans and meats like thinly sliced beef, chicken, salmon and shrimp. I even added artichokes and later learned that artichokes were one of the original items served in Bagna Cauda, even in the “Old World”.

Vegetable platter for Bagna Cauda — Veggie platter for Bagna Cauda

Bagna Cauda (Bagna Caoda)

Northern Italian Fondue

Ingredients:

3 cubes of butter per fondue pot (1 pot for four people)
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 anchovie filets
1 loaf of crusty French bread cut lengthwise and then into sections about 5 inches long

Items for dipping:

Vegetables: artichokes, asparagus, green beans, broccoli, mushrooms, cauliflower, red and yellow bell peppers, potatoes, eggplant, Napa cabbage and zucchini
Meats: Chicken (pre-cooked) Beef (thinly sliced raw, I use tri-tip), salmon (fillet, raw, bones and skin removed), shrimp (20 count, raw, heads, shells and veins removed)

Instructions:

Prepare all of the vegetables ahead of time, the broccoli, asparagus, green beans, and cauliflower should be cut into bite size pieces and blanched. The bell pepper, napa cabbage and zucchini can be left raw. Boil the potatoes and mushrooms, grill the eggplant, and steam the artichokes. The artichokes can be quartered and chokes removed.
slice the bread
prepare the meats
Plug in the fondue pots, drop in the butter and allow to melt. Add the garlic and anchovies whole (they will dissolve anyway)

Allow the pots to simmer on low while you have your Bagna Cauda Party!