The largest white truffle ever dug up was found in Umbria by Sabatino Tartufi, a consortium that purchases truffles from local hunters. The Chinese offered $1 Mil for it and it’s on its way to China. Read about it here:
http://www.eater.com/2014/12/2/7319185/worlds-biggest-white-truffle
(Sorry, you’ll have to cut and paste that, my link isn’t working on this blog post!)
While the rest of the world is willing to pay enormous sums of cash for truffles, they aren’t really that expensive in Italy. I’ve been to dinners where they freely and happily will shave as much truffle as you like onto your risotto or fresh pasta without any additional charge, and I have friends who hunt them and give them away because you can only eat so many and they have a shelf life.
I wish we were in Tuscany. My menu would be all truffle. A simple scrambled egg with truffle.
Fresh egg pasta tossed with butter and truffles.
A simple white risotto cooked with minced onion and butter, with shaved truffles mixed in before serving.
There are three different truffles in these pictures: the black truffle of Umbria, the white truffle of Tuscany and the black summer truffle of Tuscany. The best and most expensive is the white, next is the black of Umbria and last is the summer truffle of Tuscany. They’re very delicate and I get them for free!
But the region of Italy that has the most truffles is Abruzzo! No one seems to know about them but there are a few companies that are bringing them to market and I’m very excited about being able to get them! I’ll keep you posted.
If you manage to get a truffle, make fresh pasta with flour and egg, cut it into tagliolini, which are thin ribbon. Cook it 45 seconds in boiling, salted water and then toss it with good butter and your truffle. Don’t do anything more than that! Enjoy and
Buon Appetito!
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