What garlic can do for your sex life – and the surprising ways you can take it
Piedmont’s bagna càuda hot garlic soup is said to have been invented by a witch to ward off infertility and increase blood circulation and reproduction – but why should it be consumed via unconventional orifices?
Who would ever indulge in garlic soup, unless of course it turns out to be a potent sex booster?
Bagna càuda (aka “the hot broth” in Italian) is an iconic dish hailing from Italy’s northern region of Piedmont. It's a creamy sauce made with boiled and crushed garlic, anchovies, olive oil and in some towns even milk.
It is served in a heated ceramic pot and placed at the centre of the table where family members and friends gather for a warm meal.
Once the soup is ready, fresh veggies, mainly cardoons and celery, are dipped inside and then popped into the mouth. Floating bread slices, left to soak in the savoury broth, are eaten at the very end.
“It’s a collective dish coming from the old farmer tradition, savoured together as in a social ritual that bonds people in cold winter days,” says Tilde Frare, a Piedmont culinary expert and chef who often opens up her house to guests for picturesque bagna càuda nights.
In the past it was all peasants could afford: the aristocrats would hand over their leftovers to the poor, especially garlic which they snubbed due to the bad smell, but today it’s a gourmet recipe loved by locals and tourists.”
Bagna càuda days are celebrated across the region when tourists gather around huge pots of steaming garlic soup. Born in the Middle Ages, the bagna càuda fad flourished spreading from the countrysides to the towns thanks to merchants who brought back from their journeys across Europe the anchovies for the soup.
Poor families indulged in the garlic soup especially to celebrate the end of the wine harvest.
