winter crunch salad with a mind-blowing sauce

servings
4

method

This is a really interesting, delicious winter salad dish which is a great way of using up all the crunchy winter veg that’s available. It’s proper name is bagna cauda, which basically means ‘hot bath’ in Italian, and the idea is that you have a load of raw or just cooked pieces of vegetable which you dip into a delicious, warm sauce. You may like your sauce to be thick and oozy but I prefer mine to be quite thin and delicate, like the texture of thin custard, with a lovely sheen to it.

You can use any vegetables you want, and depending on the season you can do a lighter summer version or a more root-veg-based winter one. I actually prefer my veg to be raw, as I love the crunch you get from them, but if you want to boil them briefly until they’re al dente, feel free.

Firstly, prepare all your veg, because once the sauce is done you’ll be ready to serve! To make your sauce, put the garlic cloves, milk and anchovies into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer slowly for 10 minutes, or until the garlic is soft and tender, keeping a close eye on the pan to make sure the milk doesn’t boil over. Don’t worry if it spits and looks a little lumpy – simply remove from the heat and whiz the sauce up with a hand blender. Gently blend in the extra virgin olive oil and the vinegar a little at a time – you’re in control of the consistency at this point. If you like it thick, like mayonnaise, keep blending. Now taste it and adjust the seasoning. Make sure there’s enough acidity from the vinegar to act like a dressing. It should be an incredible, pungent warm sauce.

There are two ways you can serve this – with both you need the sauce to be warm. Either pour the sauce into a bowl and place this on a plate, with the veg arranged around the bowl, or serve the veg in a big bowl and drizzle the sauce over the top. Sprinkle over the reserved herby fennel tops and celery leaves and finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

• from Jamie at Home

ingredients

for the sauce
• 6 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 300ml milk
• 10 anchovy filets in oil
• 180ml good extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• 2 or 3 tablespoons good white wine vinegar

for the vegetables
• a few young carrots, peeled and finely sliced
• a few small raw beetroots, peeled and finely sliced
• a few sticks of celery, trimmed and thinly sliced, yellow leaves reserved
• ½ a small Romanesco or white cauliflower, broken into florets
• a bulb of fennel, trimmed and finely sliced, herby tops reserved
• a handful of small beetroot leaves, if available, washed
• a bunch of radishes, trimmed and washed
• ½ a celeriac, peeled and finely sliced

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tried this recipe or a similar one? share your tips...

1. by Lucy on Sun 19 Jul 2009 @ 20:16

It tasted nice but I couldn't get the sauce to thicken :-(

2. by sirel on Mon 02 Feb 2009 @ 16:46

dear jamie,
in one of your shows yo made a turnip fennel salad. can you send me the recipe pls! lots of love
sirel

3. by Karl on Sun 04 Jan 2009 @ 11:26

I know I shouldn't talk with my mouth still full (and I apologize) but there's no time to waste here: this is purely and simply one of the best salads I've ever tried!!!

Thank you so much, dude!

Best regards
Karl

4. by anna mercieca on Tue 09 Dec 2008 @ 15:47

Hi. I need some not too complicated receipes for beef filet and chicken breast and drumsticks as a second course for our xmas lunch this year. I am preparing a pasta dish as a first course namely tagliatini made out of tartufo and just boil pasta, ad fresh cream and fry mushrooms in butter and garlic and place on pasta. Pepper added to fresh cream. Please if you think I should add some other ingredient to this plate advise me. I am a great admirer of Mr Jamie!! Thanks for all you do for our kitchens!!! Regards Anna from Malta.

5. by Kathleen on Thu 09 Oct 2008 @ 18:39

Hey Jamie,

I love your site & your recipes!! But could you do me a favor & include yankee measurements for those of us in the USA that don't necessarily have cooking implements with metric measurements on them? I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks & keep the AWESOME recipes coming!

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