307/984 - Bagna càuda

It was an eventful night when I took this recipe on!

The day had been a hot one, more than 40°C, and I decided to make this once the sun had gone down to keep the house as cool as possible in the hot part of the day. As I was standing by the stove stirring and melting the anchovies, the power went out. I have an electric stovetop and so my first worry was for my bagna càuda, wondering how on earth I was going to finish the recipe without power. Then I realised that my much loved fish (a recent addition to our household!) could soon be without oxygen and mild panic set in. 

The power did not come back on as expected and the next six hours saw me teetering on a stepladder scooping water out of our fish tank with a jug and pouring it back in to aerate the water. We had not prepared ourselves for a power outage and did not have any form of battery powered back up which I was kicking myself about mid-task! Thanks to our valiant rescue effort the fish survived, but sadly the power did not come back on until 4am so the bagna càuda was thrown in the fridge to be completed at a later stage.

Two power cuts later (yes we had battery back up by the second outage!) I dragged my oily little concoction back out of the fridge and threw it in a pan with the butter to finish it off. My mum came to visit and so for lunch we dipped carrot sticks and small pieces of toast in warmed up bagna càuda which was decadent but oh so lovely!

I have also been using this as a lovely salad dressing (see above) and as a topping for steamed vegetables, warmed up each time. Anchovy fans will love this and I am thinking that it would also be lovely drizzled over a vegetable pizza...Mmmm...

A happy survivor of our
power outage.