Bagna caoda - Piemonte Feel

Ingredients
2 or 3 anchovies per person
2 or 3 cloves of garlic per person
several tablespoons of olive oil per person
traditional Piedmont vegetables

Preparation
There are just a few rules to follow, to enjoy an authentic "Bagna Caòda", typical of the old vintners’ traditions, and enjoy the surprising flavour of the vegetables dipped in this extraordinary sauce. In particular, it is important to select the ingredients with care: the anchovies must be “red Spanish anchovies”, cured at length, fragrant, fresh from the brine, rinsed in water and wine, dried and boned; the garlic should be free of its bud, finely slices and left to stand, if you like, in cold water for several hours to attenuate the flavour; the oil used must be extra virgin olive oil.
In a clay pot, place the slices and dried garlic, with a little oil and butter, and cook slowly for 30 mins, stirring with a wooden spoon and taking care not to brown it. It should slowly dissolve, to form a soft white cream; now add more olive oil and the anchovies and cook on a low flame until the anchovies dissolve and blend with the garlic. The cooking is very important to obtain a strong-flavoured but digestible bagna caòda. The sauce obtained in this way is thick and fragrant, light brown in colour.
The traditional vegetables that go with this dish should not be aromatic (celery, fennel or radishes).
You can use cardoons of two special kinds that come from Nice or Chieri, raw and grilled peeled peppers from Carmagnola, peppers preserved in vinegar and purslane, topinambour, green, white and red cabbage, white hearts of escarole and endive, fresh leeks, long onions (cut in a cross at the base and placed on the table in bunches or standing in a wineglass filled with your choice of Dolcetto - Barbera - Nebbiolo), white turnips, cooked beets, boiled cauliflower, boiled cabbage hearts, baked onions. It is also delicious with dishes of white potatoes boiled in their skins, apples, slices of roasted or fried squash, slices of hot corn meal polenta – grilled or fried – nests of fresh eggs scrambled with the last spoonful of sauce left in the clay pot at the end of the meal.

Recommended wines
Barbera, Dolcetto, Freisa , Nebbiolo, Grignolino D'Asti,Grignolino del Monferrato Casalese