Bagna Caöda Piemontese con Verdure Crude

Ingredients

• For the sauce
• 200 g Sicilian salt-packed anchovies (acciughe sotto sale), rinsed, desalted in milk for 30 minutes, drained and filleted
• 2 heads (approx. 20 cloves) garlic, cloves peeled and left whole, simmered in milk for 20 minutes then drained
• 250 ml extra-virgin olive oil, fruity Ligurian or Piedmontese style preferred
• 250 g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 500 ml whole milk, divided: half for anchovy desalting, half for garlic simmering
• For the vegetables
• 2 heads cardoons (cardi gobbi), raw, inner ribs only, cut into batons
• 2 bulbs fennel, raw, cut into wedges
• 1 bunch radishes, raw, trimmed and left whole
• 2 medium beetroot, cooked and sliced
• 3 roasted red peppers, peeled, seeded and cut into strips
• ¼ head green cabbage, cut into wedges
• 300 g Jerusalem artichokes, scrubbed; served raw or briefly blanched

Method

1. 1
   Submerge the salt-packed anchovies in cold milk and leave for 30 minutes. Lift out, rinse under cold water, and separate into fillets, discarding backbones and any remaining salt crystals. The fillets should be soft, pliable, and smell of the sea rather than of salt.
2. 2
   Place the peeled whole garlic cloves in a small saucepan, cover with fresh milk, and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook for 20 minutes. Drain and discard the milk. The cloves should yield completely when pressed — no resistance at the centre — and carry no raw sharpness to the nose.
3. 3
   Combine the olive oil, butter, drained garlic cloves, and prepared anchovy fillets in a heavy saucepan or terracotta pot. Set over the lowest possible heat. This is the step on which the dish lives or dies: the surface must never bubble, tremble, or foam — sustain a slow, silent infusion for the full 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the anchovies have dissolved completely into the fat and the garlic has collapsed to a soft, sweet, homogeneous mass. Any bubble is a failure of heat control; the anchovies must melt, not fry.
4. 4
   Transfer the sauce immediately into individual fojòt — small terracotta dipping pots — and set each over a lit candle flame. The sauce must arrive at the table fluid, glossy, and uniform; if it has begun to separate or pool butter at the surface, the heat was too high.
5. 5
   Arrange the prepared raw and cooked vegetables on a central platter. Each diner dips continuously throughout the meal, submerging each piece fully and drawing it out coated in sauce. The sauce in the fojòt should remain warm and fluid throughout — adjust the candle as needed. It is ready to eat from the first dip and ready to finish when the pot is scraped clean.