The Garlicky Dip to Rev Up Your Week's Meals

Bagna Cauda is an Italian dip made of warm anchovies and garlic that's typically found alongside vegetables and bread. But it's also robust enough to liven up a week of dinners.

Here's how to turn this one recipe into a week of meals:

Set yourself up for the week by making the following over the weekend:

• 2 batches of Bagna Cauda

And stock up on the following ingredients for your weeknight cooking:

• crusty bread for toast
• whatever vegetables move you
• sturdy salad greens, like baby mustard greens or radicchio
• eggs
• grain of choice
• potatoes
• red onion
• clambake fixin's
• pizza dough
• mozzarella
• rosemary
• cornmeal
• Parmesan

And now, how to put it all together:

• Use the bagna cauda as a dressing for salad on toasts, like this recipe. What your salad is made of is up to you. Radicchio, egg, avocado, fennel, or asparagus come to mind.

• Sauté a variety of vegetables (maybe asparagus, green beans, squash, broccoli) in the bagna cauda. Instant sauce! Serve on top of some grains: wheat berries, farro, quinoa.

• Boil and quarter red potatoes with snap peas and red onions for potato salad. Bind all ingredients together with the salty bagna cauda. Serve cold.

• Swap melted butter for bagna cauda at your next clambake.

• Make a sort of white pizza with the bagna cauda as the sauce. Add greens, lemon slices, potatoes, rosemary, mozzarella and/or roasted onions—a little like this.

• Make a comforting bowl of polenta and spoon the dip over top. A poached egg on top of that wouldn't hurt, either.

What else would you pair this warm garlic anchovy dip with? Let us know in the comments below!