An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace

by Tamar Adler

A good way to get anchovies’ dense, rosy little selves to show what they can do is to make bagna cauda. (This means “warm bath.”) Bagna cauda is a buttery dip that is a lovely way to start a meal and incredibly economical. The contents of a single jar of anchovies make enough for a big group of people. You need to reconceive both the dip and the dipped to make sense of this. Fill a plate with sliced boiled potatoes, thin wedges of raw cabbage, wedges of soft-boiled egg, lightly boiled celery, and leaves of endive, then spoon the rich sauce over each one as you eat it. Bagna cauda 1/2 cup good anchovy fillets 2/3 cup olive oil 2 tablespoons butter 4 cloves garlic, pounded to a paste with salt in a mortar with a pestle or on a cutting board salt Chop the anchovies roughly, then pound to a paste as you would garlic. Heat a little of the olive oil and all of the butter in a small pot over low heat. When the butter melts, add the garlic and stir over the lowest heat possible, making sure it doesn’t brown. Add the anchovies and cook the two together for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Keep the heat very low; turn it off periodically if the pot starts sizzling. Once the bagna cauda has begun to darken, add the remaining olive oil and a small pinch of salt. Let it cook at below a simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve this warm. There are special pots sold especially for it. I serve it in the pot in which it cooked, moving it back to the stove for a minute when it cools down, warmin...