What is the Bagna caoda?
Bagna caoda is a typical Piedmontese preparation used as a sauce for the vegetables during the autumn season. Like every popular dish, each family has its own variation, but the canonical recipe includes three simple ingredients: garlic, oil and anchovies.
Method
Start with the garlic, cleaning it and cutting it in half lengthwise, so as to eliminate the internal bud. Put it in a crock pot together with half a glass of oil and cook it without excessively raising the flame, keeping it in constant motion with a wooden spoon.
Meanwhile, also clean the anchovies, pass them in the red wine and dry them carefully, after which you can add them to the oil and garlic. Continue stirring, adding more oil, cooking everything for about 30 minutes. Never raise the temperature too high and continue until all the ingredients are mixed together. At the end you can add a piece of butter to sweeten the flavor of the sauce, which is usually very savoury.
Once it is ready it must be placed inside a fujot: a terracotta bowl at the base of which is a candle, to keep the heat. This sauce is eaten with fresh seasonal vegetables, cut into strips and eaten as a pinzimonio.
The Festival in Faule
The tradition of bagna caöda season always comes at the end of the summer hardships in the countryside. Once a time, during the chatter about the work in the fields and the labors, we accompanied ourselves with this genuine dish, a good side dish of vegetables, the fragrance of homemade bread and a bottle of wine, perhaps kept for the occasion. These are the memories that still push us to appreciate this amazing sauce that, more than a dish, is a true convivial ritual of the regional tradition.
With the same enthusiasm and the desire to share the passion for bagna caöda, every year the festival is organized in his honour by the Pro Loco and the Municipality of Faule, which has become one of the most significant in the region. It takes place in conjunction with the patron saints of the Corpi Santi and, among sports tournaments, games for children, dancing evenings and the big market on Sundays, the gastronomic moments are invariably dedicated to bagna caöda: thousands of people from Piedmont and not only can delight the palate with the typical Piedmontese dish expertly prepared according to an ancient local recipe.
During the gastronomic evenings (every evening at 7 pm, Sunday also at 12.30 pm), some exhibitions are set up on the elements of Piedmontese culture and craftsmanship, a conference concerning the event and the traditional gathering of campers.
“Eating is a ritual, knowing how to eat is an art without equal”. This is the slogan of the event that aims to enhance a traditional peasant dish, today in effect a cultural asset that recalls strong local roots.
The festival, sponsored by the Piedmont Region and the Province of Cuneo also intends to enhance, with the promotion of this rich single dish, all the vegetables already included as typical products in the list of traditional food products of the Piedmont Region, vegetables that will be combined with the bagna caöda dish. A typical product that tells the history of the place and conveys the warmth and passion of its people.
Programme:
• Inauguration in the presence of the Authorities and the Brotherhoods for the ribbon cutting
• Lunches and dinners at the Vecchia Distilleria (heated room) based on bagna caöda; open every evening from 7.30pm and on Sundays also for lunch from 12.30pm
• Walks, visits and tours of the town and its surroundings
• Dance evenings and live music
• Activities for children, 18th rally campers and 9th car and motorbike rally
• Election “Miss Faule 2019” and fashion show organized by Elisa Muriale