Grilled vegetables with bagna cauda

Bagna cauda means "warm bath" and this rich dip is the traditional Piedmontese accompaniment to raw or cooked vegetables. It is usually kept warm in an earthenware dish over a candle heater, but the edge of a waning barbecue is also ideal. In this recipe, it is teamed with an assortment of grilled root vegetables though other vegetables also work well. Along with some good-looking crusty Italian bread, put out plenty of young red wine - such delicious food makes for thirsty work.

Prepare the barbecue. Cutting lengthways, slices each sweet potato and carrot into 8 pieces, each parsnip into 7 and each   beetroot   into   10.   Toss   all   the vegetables except the beetroot in most of the oil on a big tray. Put the beetroot on a separate tray as it might otherwise bleed over all the other vegetables. Gently toss the beetroot in the remaining oil and season all the vegetables well.

Make the bagna cauda. Place the garlic, anchovies and butter, with a little pepper, into a food processor. Pour in 30ml/2 tbsp of the oil and whiz to a puree. With the motor running, add the remaining oil. Tip into a heatproof bowl or pan and warm very gently at the edge of the barbecue or over a pan of simmering water when ready to serve.

Once the flames have died down, position a lightly oiled grill rack over the coals to heat. When the coals are medium-hot, or with a moderate coating of ash, arrange the vegetables over the grill rack.

Lightly grill the vegetables for 3 minutes on each side, or until tender and branded with dark golden grill lines. Remove them as they cook and serve hot or warm with the warm bagna cauda.

Serves 4-6
4 small sweet potatoes, total weight about 675g/1½ lb
4 carrots, total weight about 375g/13oz
Parsnips, total weight about 400g/14oz
4 raw beetroot (beets), total weight about 400g/14oz
450g/1lb asparagus, trimmed
60ml/4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt and ground black pepper
For the bagna cauda
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed
50-65g/2- 2 ½ oz drained anchovy fillets, chopped
25g/1oz/2 tbsp unsalted (sweet) butter, melted
200ml/7fl oz/scant 1 cup extra virgin olive oil