Roasted Potatoes with Bagna Cauda

This is my friend, Deb Michail. Nancy signed my paychecks for two years. I’m happy to cook together and really looking forward to the dinner party we’re having tonight. I’m gonna wash potatoes. Great. [Nancy] These are a butter potato. [Deb] Oh, great! They’re always so delicious and the texture, perfect. All right. All right, I’m gonna confit it in oil and in butter, yeah. Okay. What I love doing is cooking them ’til they’re almost cooked. So, just a little bit of a bite still to them and then finishing them off in the oven. Okay. And you salt it in the pot? Yeah, salt. Everything: butter, salt, I’m gonna cover it, but I’m glad you reminded me of the garlic. And I have some peeled garlic, so I’m just gonna throw that in. I’m glad you reminded me of the garlic ’cause I would have forgotten that. I’ve got rosemary. I have my potatoes that I’ve cut in half, my olive oil, my butter, my cloves of garlic, fresh rosemary, sage, salt. [Deb] Do you use extra virgin olive oil or just olive oil? You know with these I am using extra virgin olive oil because the potatoes are gonna soak up so much of the oil that I really want it to be a flavorful olive oil. Got it. So this is– Extra virgin. It’s an extra virgin olive oil and it is one that I usually do not saute with, but I am cooking this over a very low temperature. So I’m gonna cook these on the stove, cook ’em slowly until they’re almost all the way cooked. That’s a cool lid! [Nancy] I know! Another thing I haven’t used, this one about 40 years. [Deb] Where is this from? [Nancy] France. It’s nice, huh? This is amazing! [Nancy] Yeah. [Deb] That’s so cool. [Nancy] I knew one day. One day it would come in handy! It would come in handy, like so much of the other stuff I have, right? Are you keeping these in my metal sculpture? I like it! Yeah, it’s so convenient you have this brilliant sculpture because I’m using it as the basis for the floral arrangement. Oh, this table is gonna look fantastic. So, you know that we’re only using this for food, this table, oh you’ve already started on this! Well, I thought we needed to get a sense of what all the sizes are for everything ’cause I don’t wanna make the arrangements too high. And then over here on the buffet table, which everyone’s gonna get up from the table and help themselves, that’s the rustic, heath pottery look, and this should be the more stuffy, how do you say it, elegant. Eleganza, that’s what the kids are saying, eleganza. [Nancy] That look over here. But I think you’re doing, I mean, I love these, and this is fantastic. It’s a sense of discovery, always, Nancy. [Nancy] You know what happens to me? I go to buy napkins– [Nick] And they don’t have enough. [Nancy] No! They do have enough, but sometimes I can’t decide what I like best. And so. [Nick] You get all of ’em! [Nancy] I got ’em all! [Nick] So, we’ll kind of, like, alternate them. [Nancy] Yeah, I mean, look it, they all go with the palette, and I don’t always have 12 people coming, sometimes I have four, then I maybe I’ll match, but in this case, you know, I think they all look good, right? Looks great. It’s you. [Nancy] My potatoes are done. They’re almost all the way done. You wanna see ’em? [Deb] Yeah. [Nancy] And then, here feel ’em. Well, I’ve got a knife over there, if you wanna see it. I’m gonna finish ’em off in the oven, but I’m gonna turn off right now and let ’em just sit in the oil. [Deb] Oh, wow! They’re like, perfectly confited. [Nancy] Yeah, until they cool down and then I’m gonna transfer them. But I’m just gonna leave ’em covered for now. Could you reuse that oil again? Yeah, I definitely reuse. There’s so much oil and butter, but it has to be in something that you want both oil and butter for. And do you store that in the fridge? Yes, I store it in the fridge because it has butter in it. All right, and I’m gonna get the potatoes in. What can I, do you need me for that? [Nancy] No, I’m good. Sheet pan. All right and I’m gonna be using this olive oil and butter to cook my potatoes in or just to slightly brown them in the oven. That is so good! Potato oil. Potato and butter oil. Nice. I’m gonna season ’em. So these potatoes cook for about 25 minutes. 25 minutes. Yeah. Did you see ’em? Yup. Oh, where’s my little knife? I can’t find it, but see? Goes in easily, they’re almost fully cooked. [Deb] They’re perfect. Almost perfectly cooked. So these potatoes have been confited, they’ve been cooking in oil and butter and some aromatics ’til they’re almost fully cooked. So, I didn’t steam ’em, I didn’t saute them, I didn’t blanch them. They were cooked in oil. In oil and butter. The ones on the bottom are a little bit more cooked ’cause they had the advantage of the heat. You know why I also love this dish? [Nancy] Why? [Deb] ‘Cause of the caramelized garlic. Yeah, which I’m gonna add back. There’s sage right here. I’m gonna add a little bit of more rosemary, I added some sage, so I’m gonna add these to the floor of my oven. I’m keeping it at 500 degrees. And we’ll see. Okay! Okay, so, peppers, eggplant. [Deb] Ribs. [Nancy] Celery. [Deb] Do you have more of like, oh yeah! That’s the one we use. Okay, so, for that, but you like this. [Deb] How big are they? [Nancy] So, carrots. [Deb] Ribs. [Nancy] Ribs. [Deb] Roveja. [Nancy] Okay, so this is for the peas, right? [Deb] Yup. [Nancy] ‘Cause I don’t know how to spell roveja. [Deb] What condiments do you have? Oh, bagna cauda. So, we’re gonna make bagna cauda now? [Nancy] Yes. Okay, I’ll grab a mortar and pestle? Yup. Okay. And I have, I’m gonna cook it in a little copper pot. Oh, that’s cute! No, ’cause I’m gonna leave this on the table and what’s great about it is we’re making it so far ahead of time that the butter in it will start to solidify, but in this case, we can heat it up right before we put it on the table and it’s already in the pot. And it’s pretty. And it’s pretty, so. Got the lid. How much garlic? Okay, I’m gonna do about eight tablespoons, a stick of butter or something like that. Now, again, this is really to taste. This is not a recipe and it’s not science, but I like it really garlic-y, really anchovy-y. So, I’m gonna have a stick of butter, probably about, I don’t know, a dozen smashed garlic? [Deb] Sounds good. [Nancy] Sound good? [Deb] I think I had like 12 here, 12 and a quarter. Use it all. There’s my stick of butter and like a half a cup of olive oil, something like that. Oh, throw in one of those chili pods, yeah. Will you go in the refrigerator? I have some salted anchovies. We need to rinse them. Let me get a bowl to rinse them in. We’re gonna finish it, but I’m not gonna do it now. Before we put it on the table, with a couple whole anchovies. I’m gonna rinse them right now and take the bones out. Oh, great! Well, then I’ll start pounding this. [Deb] So, bagna cauda, where’s that from? You know, I think it’s from Piemonte. [Deb] Oh, interesting! And traditionally, it’s eaten with vegetables? [Nancy] Yes, as a dip, you know, with raw vegetables. How do you serve it at the restaurant? Mozzarella, I know that. Yeah, I love bagna cauda with bufala ’cause I love anchovy and bufala. You’re counting, so it’s 10 whole anchovy, so it’s 20 filets. 20 filets. And that’s kinda to taste, you know? I mean, we may add a couple more. Let me just rough chop these, okay, and get them in with my garlic. You need like twice as much. [Deb] Nance? [Nancy] Yeah? [Deb] Okay, I’m gonna come right around you. So I’m just smashing together the garlic and anchovy. Yeah, I think that’s good. [Deb] Very good. Would you like me to pick the parsley for you? Yeah, you know what, you can pick it, and you can chop it, and we’ll just save it until we need it. I’m gonna get this on the stove. And then we’ll taste it and re-season, we’ll add more garlic, we’ll add more anchovy, if we need it. So I added the anchovy and garlic to my butter and olive oil and chili pot, I’m gonna melt it, let it simmer a little bit so that the flavors meld, we’ll turn it off, put it aside. Right before we’re ready to eat, I’m gonna turn it up to rewarm it, I’ve got a lid, I’ll cover it, it’ll go on to the table, and– [Deb] Parsley. [Nancy] Oh, yeah, thanks. [Deb] This parsley is gonna go on top of the bagna cauda or, no, inside or on top? [Nancy] It’s gonna go inside, but we want to make sure that the parsley in the bagna cauda is still relatively green. So, we don’t wanna cook it at this point. I think the butter is just melted in our bagna cauda. Yup, and now, we wanna simmer the anchovy and garlic together with the butter and olive oil, so all the flavors meld. You know, I have it on a really low heat though because those anchovies, as they fall to the bottom of the pot, burn really quickly. Oh, so good. I would take a warm bath in this, any day. Taste it. All right, we are good. [Deb] The potatoes? [Nancy] Yeah, I’m gonna check on the potatoes. [Deb] You pull ’em out and I’ll tong it up. [Nancy] All right, I don’t think, do we need the oven anymore? [Deb] No. Let’s check these potatoes, flip ’em over, oh, perfect! [Deb] Look how pretty those are! [Nancy] That’s how I like my potatoes. I like them just starting to brown, yeah. Just spotted, starting to color, they don’t look like pale, and undercooked, and unappetizing, but they’re still soft and there’s not that dry contrast between when they’re really well brown or crisp, which I don’t like. Where’s my bowl? All right, I’m just gonna pile my potatoes in here, get all the garlic, I’m gonna crumble in my cooked rosemary and sage, ’cause I love it in there. Oh, I’m really very happy with these potatoes. [Deb] Yeah, they look so good and all that garlic. Looks great, huh? So good. [Nancy] There you go, that looks good, huh? Great! God, when I uncorked that wine, amazing. Amazing.