Sometimes, buying cream in bulk is too good of a deal to pass up. For about the price of two cups (470 mL) of heavy cream at the supermarket, you can pick up a half gallon (8 cups) at the local wholesaler. But, unless you're cooking for a party, that's a lot of cream to use up before you hit the expiration date. After you've made a couple cream pies, , you realize that you've only used four cups of cream!
Bagda cauda means warm bath, in this case for dipping raw vegetables and spears of bread to catch the drips of this hugely flavorful mixture of garlic, anchovies, olive oil and melted butter. While the dish was originally created to be used with raw winter vegetables like cabbage, broccoli and leaves of bitter radicchio, it's wonderful year-round with any sturdy vegetable, including zucchini, endive, carrots, celery, asparagus, and sweet bell peppers. Because the main ingredient is oil, the mixture will keep separating much as a salad dressing would. But just give it a periodic stir and resist any other ingredients, like cream, to emulsify it because this will make the dip far heavier in texture.
