THE CUISINE OF ROERO: the "Bagnèt"

The “Bagnet”

“Bagnet” means sauce in the local dialect, There is no known controversy regarding the origin nor the content of this recipe, although nobody knows when it was invented: even Google recognizes it as a Piedmonts’ recipe. It is used to dress the “bollito”, and the ”bollito misto” (boiled meat, and mix of boiled meat), or as dip. It comes in two variants: green and red.

The green variety of “Bagnet”

Difficulty: easy

Time to prepare: 20 minutes

Ingredients

4 filets of anchovies

200 gr. of parsley

2 cloves of garlic

100 ml of extra virgin oil

Pinch of salt (optional: just a pinch; I normally do not add any. But it depends on how tasty the parsley is)

Bread crumbs

Hot pepper (optional)

Preparation

Wash the parsley thoroughly, than discard the stems. Put the anchovies and the parsley on a cutting surface, and roughly cut both with a knife, then finely mince them with a rocking knife. Do not use a blender: it would make a mushy pulp out of the ingredients when they need only be finely minced. Put all the thing, except the bread crumbs, in a tall container and mix manually. Since the sauce has to be a dense liquid more than a soft cream, add the bread crumbs while mixing until you achieve the desired consistency. If too dense add some oil, if too liquid add some more bread crumbs. If you want a spicy bagnet, add some finely minced hot pepper. Don’t put too much of it or you’ll lose most of the delicate taste and smell of the bagnet.

This much bagnet is enough for 6 to 8 servings.

The red variety of “Bagnet”

Difficulty: easy

Time to prepare: 2 hours

Ingredients

100 gr. of soffritto,

Hot pepper,

White wine,

Pinch of salt,

2 ripe tomatoes, or 150 ml. of tomato sauce.

Preparation

Slowly fry the soffritto in extra virgin olive oil until the soffritto adopts a yellow-brownish color. Add some white wine, as required, so that the soffritto does not burn. Let the wine evaporate. In the mean time peel the tomatoes, and cut them in pieces. Pour the tomatoes and a pinch of red pepper in the pan and let cook very gently for 1 hour. Stir occasionally.

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