In these parts, when you say “truffle” you usually mean the rich, sweet, chocolate variety.  But Cinda Chavich, CBC’s food and cooking columnist, has recently returned from the land of white truffles, and we don’t mean chocolate. She’s here to tell us about the rarest – and most valuable – fungus among us.

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SO YOU’VE BEEN AWAY AGAIN – THIS TIME TASTING WHITE TRUFFLES IN ITALY?

Yes, I’ve just returned from a week in northern Italy – the region of Piemonte which is home to the famous white truffle of Alba.

These are the rare round fungus – a kind of mushroom – that grows underground, on the roots of oak and willow trees. The famous tartufo bianco.

If you’ve eaten in any good restaurants lately, you’ve likely tasted, or at least smelled, truffles – many chefs like to drizzle a bit of truffle oil over a plate to finish it with the unique, heady aroma that comes from this rare mushroom. And right now – in November when truffles are in season in Italy – you might even see a few thin shavings of truffles on your plate of pasta or risotto in a good Italian restaurant here in Alberta.

SHAVINGS?

Yes, the white truffles are so incredibly rare and expensive, that that you usually just get a gram or two, shaved over your plate.

But the sweet musky aroma of a fresh white truffle is so incredibly strong, that you only really need a few grams.

In Italy, many restaurants have a truffle menu – that is you can have truffles shaved over a dish for about 45-55 euros (that’s about $72 -$88) per plate.

That’s pretty expensive for me but I did have a truffle course one night, in a very good restaurant in Roero.

I had a soft-cooked egg, coddled in a coffee cup with a little cheese sauce and white truffles shaved on top – just an amazing flavour, when you stirred it all up together into a soupy mass. It didn’t look that appetizing, but I loved it. And it was truly the most expensive egg I’ve ever eaten - 15 euros for the egg dish, plus 55 for the truffles on top  – so 70 euros or just over $100 for that little second course.

WOW, TRUFFLES REALLY ARE EXPENSIVE – DID YOU BUY ANY?

I really couldn’t afford to make the investment – and I wasn’t even sure they would get through Canadian customs – so the only truffles I brought home were in pictures.

But I certainly spent time talking to people about them and smelling them – the aroma of truffles really permeates the town of Alba and it’s really intense when you’re inside a little shop that’s selling them.

The price is especially high this year because it’s been a very dry season in Piemonte, and so they aren’t finding as many truffles as usual.

I saw white truffles in one gourmet supermarket in Turin selling for 8,000 euros per kilo – about  $13,000 per kilogram. A specimen about the size of a small potato was 800 E or about $1,300.

They were a little cheaper when I saw them in a small shop in Alba – that’s the little town south of Turn where  they were celebrating the truffle season with an annual truffle fair. In that shop, truffles were selling for about $450 per hundred grams – I could have bought one that was about as big as a walnut, for about $75.

Here in Calgary, white truffles are selling this week for $15,000 per kg in retail stores or $15 per gram, while black truffles are much cheaper, $2,000 per kg.

SO WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?

They call the white ones white diamonds, but really they look like a lumpy potato, not particularly attractive.

Black truffles are jet black, and sort of pebbled on the surface, with a thick skin. They’re much more common so less expensive and so usually used in products like truffle paste or truffle-flavored rice for risotto or cornmeal for polenta.

White truffles are more delicate, sort of a muddy buff colour. They really do look a lot like a white potato that’s just come out of the ground.

Which, of course is where they’re found. Truffle hunters in Italy go out at night with their trained truffle dogs to hunt for truffles in the forest. They grow underground, among the roots of different trees. The white truffles from oak trees are tinged with pink and considered the very best, but there are truffles that grow near other kinds of trees, like willows or poplars, too. They can range in colour from white to grayish brown.

The thing about these rare white truffles is that they’re totally wild and unpredictable – they can’t be cultivated and you can’t find them in the same spot every year. It’s a real treasure hunt – and with the high prices, very clandestine and very secretive.

AND THE TASTE?

There’s not much flavour in a truffle – it’s all about the earthy, sweet aroma, especially with white truffles which are particularly pungent. The odor is so strong, one truffle will literally fill the room with its aroma.

It’s difficult to describe - a faint aroma of sweet roasted garlic with something sort of musky and peppery behind – like a mushroom but not.  I smelled them side by side in the market in Alba, and really, black truffles have very little aroma when compared to white truffles.

The flesh looks creamy and dense, like a portabello mushroom, and it’s usually shaved, paper thin over top of your dish.  White truffles are always served raw, whereas black truffles are usually cooked.

SO TRUFFLES ARE AVAILABLE HERE IN CALGARY?

Yes, in November, fresh truffles can be purchased here, but they’re very expensive.

I talked to Victor Caracciolo at Mercato, an Italian market here in Calgary, and they are selling fresh white and black truffles this week in the store.

As I mentioned, the white truffles are about $15 per gram, so you’re going to pay a fair bit for a whole truffle. They’re various sizes – from walnut sized to the size of your fist for a big one.

At Lina’s Italian Market there’s a locked case with truffle oil, truffle butter and jars of preserved black truffles. Even the black truffles are expensive. I saw a little 3.6-oz. jar of black truffles at Lina’s this week for $79.95.

And at Mercato they also sell truffle oil, truffle butter, packaged of risotto rice flecked with black truffles, and polenta with truffles. But it’s pricey, too – a 350 g bag of rice or cornmeal with truffles, is $35.

WHAT ABOUT TRYING TRUFFLES AT LOCAL RESTAURANTS?

Yes, you might find a truffle on your plate at a better restaurant this month. I talked to Giuseppe Di Gennaro, the chef at Capo here in Calgary, and while he doesn’t have truffles on the regular menu, he says he does include them in his dishes when he is able to obtain fresh specimens. He says he may have some fresh truffles arriving this week, but the supply is inconsistent, and often the truffles aren’t in the best shape by the time they get to Calgary, so he doesn’t list it on his regular menu.

But he does use truffle oil in his cooking – he finishes his famous gnocchi dish with white truffle oil, and he has a lentil dish on the menu that’s flavoured with truffles, too.

And this week at Mercato, you can have pasta or risotto, with fresh truffles shaved on top, for $75 a plate.

SO HOW WOULD YOU TRUFFLES AT HOME?

Well, according to Dominic Caracciolo at Mercato, most people who buy truffles here use them with eggs. I’ve had wonderful scrambled eggs with black truffles – just beat the eggs and combine them with the chopped truffle the night before, refrigerate and use to make amazing, decadent breakfast omelets or scrambled eggs.

If you invest in a whole white truffle, you can get a truffle shaver – a special tool that slices off paper thin pieces – and treat your guests to a simple rice or pasta dish topped with slivered truffles. The dish is really just the canvass to showcase the truffle – it should be very simple and plain, like fresh pasta tossed with butter and a little Parmesan cheese. It’s good with cured meats like prosciutto, butter, cream and nuts – try shaving truffles over a simple risotto, a creamy cauliflower and cheese soup, mashed potatoes or even a simple salad.

If you buy a whole truffle, make sure to store it properly – wrapped loosely in paper towels in a cool spot, changing the paper regularly.  You can also store truffles submerged in a neutral oil, like light olive oil or grapeseed oil, or even in clarified butter – the truffles will scent the oil but retain some of their aroma.

In Italy and France, it’s common to store a whole truffle inside a sealed bag of rice to scent it with truffle aroma. This is a short term solution, for a week or two.

I’ve also heard through the grapevine that Worldwide Specialty Foods brings in an great cheese with truffles – so that would be something to look for, for a special party or event.

WHAT ABOUT TRUFFLE OIL – IS IT WORTH THE COST?

Truffle oils, butters and pastes are quite easy to find at Italian markets and gourmet specialty stores, but you have to be careful what you buy because even truffle-flavored oil is really expensive.

If you’re buying white truffle oil, look for the origin – it should be from Alba, or at least from the Piedmonte region, because that’s the only place in the world where real white truffles are found.

And read the label – make sure it contains white truffles, not just “flavouring” or “natural aroma”. Even in Italy, they told me that many of the oils and other bottled truffle products are favoured with “aromi naturali” or “natural aroma” which is a chemically derived flavouring designed to mimic fresh truffles. It’s really too strong and cloying – you can tell when a dish is flavored with this kind of product.

On the other hand, I had a white truffle oil on my shelf that said it included extra virgin olive oil and truffle “essence” – I think that just meant they bottled it with the aroma of truffles in the air because it seemed that the moment I opened it, it was gone.

So be careful what you buy – these can be nice products but they’re pricey, too. A small 55 ml bottle of truffle oil is going to set you back about $30 – about the same for a tiny jar of white truffle cream.

So you may be best to enjoy your truffles at a good restaurant.

AND IS IT WORTH ALL OF THE HYPE?

Well, like many of these things, I think it’s always best to enjoy exotic foods like this at the source.

I have had white truffles in the past – at special meals in Italian restaurants like Da Guido in Calgary – but the dish I had last week in Roero, at a one-star Michelin restaurant, was truly amazing. Really, it was nothing more than soft boiled egg with cheese sauce and truffles and it was incredibly delicious. I’m still thinking about it. 

So to get the full truffle experience, you really need to go to Italy in November during truffle season, or ask your favourite Italian chef when he plans to have fresh truffles on the menu. Then make sure you pour a wine from that region of Italy, too – a nice Barbaresco or Dolcetto from the Langhe region is pretty special, too.

But do try fresh white truffles if you get a chance – there’s really nothing like them on the planet.

copyright Cinda Chavich, tastereport.com