A love affair with truffles
It would be fair to say that I have a strong love affair with truffles. I am not talking about the confection of chocolate shaped to look like a truffle but the fungi itself. To be in Italy for winter truffle season was something that I have wanted for a very long time and finally that dream came true.
Truffle virgin in NYC
The first time I smelled and tasted truffle I was living in NYC, going to culinary school. There was a great mushroom dealer in lower Manhattan that had a marvelous warehouse space. They were very approachable at the time, compared to trying to convince some of the snooty Manhattan stores to let you lay hands on a fresh truffle. One day while milling through the dried mushrooms one of the employees recognised my interest in mushrooms and truffles and from a cooler door waved me in to see his latest shipment. When I walked into the cooler the funky pungent smell of truffles filled the air. It was intoxicating and completely new, a smell that, at first hits you like dirty socks and then wraps around your brain taunting your taste buds with its earthy aromas. Opening a large styrofoam box, the smell doubled in intensity as I laid eyes on a mother lode of black Perigord truffles from France. Picking up a golf ball sized truffle, the store owner handed it to me for inspection. What the hell is this? I thought. It’s black and ugly, looking like nothing I had ever seen before, no roots or stem, just a black ball of odiferous weirdness. Being a student at the time I didn’t have the cash to splash out for even the smallest truffle to take home and enjoy but the hook was set and truffles, and the pursuit there of, became a passion of mine.
Truffle season in Umbria
Flash forward a few decades and we are in Umbria, where truffles abound in October, November and December. There are three types of truffles to concern yourself with here. The first is not that awesome in the truffle realm, the black summer truffle (June and July). It can be a good intro to truffles for the newbie but too often is very disappointing in its fleeting taste and very faint aroma. In winter, the black Norcia truffle in Umbria becomes plentiful and makes its way onto many menus around the country.
It is much more pungent in odor with a certain earthiness and mushroom aroma. It represents what most will relate to as a truffle. The third in this area is the king (or queen) of truffles, the white truffle. Not only are white truffles more than double the price of the black because of their scarcity but they are also just that much more truffle. Their aroma is even more acute and biting with more undefinable layers of complexity moving into floral notes with funky undertones.
Arriving in Rome last November, our friend said that he could find crack easier than he could find truffles and just about all truffles dug up are sent to restaurants not available for Joe average like me. Undeterred I knew I could find a source and like mushroom hunting, if you look hard enough, they will appear eventually.
I was so determined to indulge heavily in truffles that I sold a prize possession back home in order to fund my truffle supply. Having had a shaving of truffle here and there many times over the years with the occasional dish hit harder with a nice truffle, I was after something more. Like a cocaine addict going to Bolivia, I wanted to feast on an over the top dish piled high with freshly grated truffles and then grate a whole truffle into my eggs the next morning for breakfast while I planned on what to stuff the next truffle into for lunch. Umbria granted me that wish.
More truffles please
The truffle season this year was excellent and a flood of fantastic truffles were on the market. Suddenly small signs started to appear in shop windows, tartufo fresco, and I would dive in to see what they had to offer. One shop had a nice little bucket of both black and white, so I started there by picking up a couple of black truffles.
The shifty store owner made me suspect that they were not as fresh as she claimed but satisfied us that night for dinner, grated heavily over a porcini risotto, and again the next day simply grated on a warm crostini for a pure unadulterated taste of fresh truffle.
Restaurants all over Umbria offered a plethora of truffle dishes and without fail I would find myself ordering the truffle pici (a thick Tuscan style spaghetti) or Umbricelli, a thinner Umbrian style pasta with fresh black truffles. In a good restaurant you will get a plate of pasta loaded with black truffles, simply dressed with butter or olive oil, cheese is not usually offered because it will easily overpower the delicate nuances of the fresh truffle. When white truffles are offered the whole truffle is usually grated or shaved table side. The cost is considerably more than a black truffle dish but less truffle is needed to do the job.
One dinner we had, I again opted for the truffle pasta that was a simple homemade stringozzi prepared with three grams of white truffle and butter and then hit with as much shaved white truffle as you could afford at the table. The price was 3€ per gram and the waiter came with an electronic scale and the fresh truffle in hand. First he weighed the truffle and then he started to shave away over the hot pasta, the smell filled the restaurant and other diners’ heads turned as the paper thin slices continued to fall. Like a gambler at a black jack table I nodded my head as if to say hit me again as the slices started to conceal the pasta. Finally, he slowed and looked at me to stop, “basta, grazie” I said.
He weighed the truffle again to calculate my take, I won’t tell you how much truffle ended up on my plate but suffice to say it was the most expensive plate of pasta I have even eaten. Three ingredients, pasta, butter and truffle (salt too) came together to make magic, insanely complex in its aromas and taste, yet reveling in simplicity, a theme we enjoy.
Fill the bucket with truffles
My favourite truffle purchase came at an unexpected time and place in the small town of Citta de la Pieve. Walking down a narrow street during the mid week market we came upon a young man with a children’s folding table filled with truffles he had hunted with his dog.
The price was excellent and the truffles were fresh and bursting with odour. We made a deal and I walked away happy with a handful of black beauties. Back at the house, truffle pappardelle with artichokes, involtini with porcini and truffle and even pizza hit hard with truffle made their way onto the dinner table.
In the morning a sunny side up egg with shaved truffle was the perfect way to start the day.
My truffle dreams were realized again and again and if I believed in bucket lists there would be one big check mark on it but more than likely I would empty the bucket and fill it with truffles.
Here are three rules I would follow to have the best truffle experience possible.
1. The only time to really enjoy truffles is in season October through January in Umbria.
2. Buy fresh truffles right from the hunter and avoid specialty shops. They will be fresher and cheaper and you will support the hunter’s passion. Look for them at local markets and Christmas markets.
3. Keep it simple! Truffles like butter, eggs, mild cheese, pasta and other mushrooms. They can also complement meats like lamb and vegetables like artichokes and cauliflower but the simpler the better to get that awesome truffle flavour.
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