OCCITANO

The Cult of the Anchovy

Anchovies in the Alps? Why, yes, why not? Life on a trade route led me down a rabbit hole of wondering how come Bagna Cauda is such a staple of the Piedmonte table. If you don’t know Bagna Cauda, its a delicious hot dipping sauce made of anchovies, garlic and butter, served with bread and raw vegetables. Not so unusual, you might think, apart from it’s very very common in the snowy peaks that lie far from the sparkling Ligurian sea where the anchovies are fished.

The trade route we lived on is an ancient salt route which begins to explain it. Any trade route is steeped in stories of traders, muleteers and smugglers, they are routes for stories and poetry too, a place to swap news, warn of danger and do deals. Farmers from the agricultural