Best Salad W Bagna Cauda Avocado Recipes

BAGNA CALDA (ITALIAN GARLIC-ANCHOVY-SARDINE APPETIZER)

Steps:

• Place the canola oil in a skillet and heat over medium heat. Stir in the garlic, and cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Add the butter, anchovies, and sardines. Cook and stir until well blended, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve warm.

ARUGULA AND AVOCADO SALAD WITH BAGNA CAUDA DRESSING

Steps:

• In a small skillet over medium heat, warm the oil. Add anchovies and cook over medium-low heat, stirring, until anchovies melt into the oil, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and whisk in salt, vinegar and pepper. Let cool to room temperature.
• In a serving bowl, toss arugula with just enough dressing to coat. Season well with black pepper. In a smaller bowl, very gently toss avocado with more of the dressing (you may not need it all). Add avocado to arugula and very gently combine. Serve immediately.

SPRING SALAD WITH BAGNA CAUDA DRESSING

Steps:

• Make the dressing: Chop the anchovies and garlic to a rough paste, or pound together in a mortar. Place in a small saucepan, add olive oil and simmer over medium heat, without browning, for 2 minutes, until anchovies have dissolved. Transfer to a small bowl and whisk in crème fraîche, lemon zest and lemon juice. Set aside to cool.
• Arrange all the vegetables artfully on a large platter and garnish with eggs. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.
• Drizzle 4 tablespoons of the dressing over the salad and serve. Pass the remaining dressing at the table.

CLASSIC BAGNA CAUDA

Steps:

• Combine the butter and oil in a saucepan and add the garlic. Cook over the lowest heat for 15 minutes without letting the mixture boil.
• Chop the anchovies and add to the oil. Stir until the anchovies dissolve. Do not let the sauce boil or brown. Season with salt if needed. Keep hot over a candle or spirit lamp. (See note.)
• Prepare an assortment of raw vegetables, like cucumber, cauliflowerettes, strips of green pepper, celery, carrots and endive. Serve separately for dipping.

BAGNA CàUDA AND AIOLI

Steps:

• First, figure out how many vegetables you need to serve your guests. Then, for the vegetables, sit down in a garden chair with a bottle of rosé or pastis, a cutting board on your knees, and a good paring knife. Throw the peels straight into the garden.
• To make the aioli, combine the oils in a measuring pitcher. In a food processor, combine the potato, egg yolks, egg, and as much of the garlic as you like and process until smooth. (Potato is added to the traditional aioli for texture; you can also use bread that has been soaked in milk.) With the motor running, slowly drizzle in the combined oils. The mixture should emulsify with no problem. Keep a glass of warm water handy, however, in case the mixture splits. If it does, immediately add a spoonful or two of the water, pulsing as you add. When all of the oil has been added, season with salt and pepper. To finish, add the lemon juice. Refrigerate until serving.
• To make the dip, in a small saucepan, combine the cream and anchovies and simmer over medium-low heat until the cream is reduced by one-third. Bring the heat down to low, and, using a hand blender, blend in the garlic and oil. Using a hand whisk, delicately whisk in the butter a few cubes at a time. The mixture may break and split. If it does, add an ice cube and whisk again. Season generously with salt and pepper and serve warm. If the weather is chilly, keep the dip warm on a fondue warmer on the very lowest setting.
• Serve the vegetables along with the garnishes of your choice in a nice bowl or arranged on a platter along with the dip and aioli.
• I AM FORTUNATE TO SPEND A FEW WEEKS of each summer in the small town of Keremeos in the Similkameen Valley, in the interior of British Columbia. It is beautiful and hot, and has good wine and great farms. Not too hippie, not too "the man," but just right. A guy named Yuri and his wife farm there, growing (among other things) the best Russian garlic: big, red, and curved like the roof of the Kremlin. It's what I imagine opium must feel like to touch, sticky and rich. You can shave it like you would a truffle. I buy a few hundred bucks' worth of it every year and I keep it at home and not at the restaurant as I don't think I have the self-control needed to politely explain to a cook that you don't half-assly fill your stockpots with it. I don't get high like that on produce often; in fact it irritates me when others do it. So I guess I'm using my wild card here.