My father is a nut for the white truffle. Because of this he throws a truffle party as well as truffle dinners at our restaurant every year. This year he went one step further. He organized to fly a truffle hunter and his dog to San Francisco and they put on a hunt (they brought the truffles too and planted them in the search area)You can read about the hunt HERE and you can see my dad and his stash of a kilo or so of truffles HERE
Tonight is the special dinner and the link above has the menu.
Cristina A San Franciscan in Siena Read my report on the Palio di Siena
Great photo!! There was a bit on NPR's All Things Considered the other night about a chef with a 2.2 pound white truffle that he paid $30,000 for - some charity event because it was the biggest truffle ever. He listed all the dishes he was going to serve at the dinner.
I am working on my USA section now and will add your family's restaurant to the San Francisco travel notes.
I had some truffles on our last trip from San Giovanni d'Asso. While very affordable compared to the price of Acqualagna truffles, they are just not quite the same in my opinion. We also had the Acqualagna whites in Firenze at beccofino with Judy. There is nothing like them! By the time they are shipped to the US they have usually lost some of their edge. If you are going to Itali tha last week in October or the first part of November, I suggest a stop at the truffle festival in Acqualagna. Be sure to have dinner at La Ginestra in Gola di Furlo and try their truffle feast.
If life is an opera by Puccini... I want to be Calaf!
Posts: 4612 | Location: Casa del Fenicottero Rosa, Silver Spring, MD USA | Registered: 06 August 2002
Speaking of truffles! It is my plan to make tagliatelle with black truffles for Christmas dinner. I have truffles, which i bought in Norcia and a few packages of panna. How shall I do them? Help!
Posts: 1099 | Location: Rochester, NY and Bonita Springs, Fl | Registered: 18 September 2002
Wow! only $90 for that luscious dinner! Any chance he could open a branch in Milwaukee?? I have never had the chance to enjoy them except infused in olive oil. One of these days....
Posts: 403 | Location: Wisconsin | Registered: 26 April 2002
>>Wow! only $90 for that luscious dinner! Any chance he could open a branch in Milwaukee?? I have never had the chance to enjoy them except infused in olive oil. One of these days....<<
In Umbria, I purchased a jar of preserved truffles as well as truffle puree, which contains only black truffles they say. It wasn't that espensive, relatively speaking. I know that fresh is best, but this will be just fine..if I figure out how to prepare them. Maybe Diva's site has some info...I'll check that out.
Pat
Posts: 1099 | Location: Rochester, NY and Bonita Springs, Fl | Registered: 18 September 2002
quote:Originally posted by Eccomi: It is my plan to make tagliatelle with black truffles for Christmas dinner. I have truffles, which i bought in Norcia and a few packages of panna. How shall I do them? Help!
There was a recipe posted a while back that sounded wonderful. My understanding is that white truffles should not be cooked (only shaved over the cooked dish); but that black truffles can stand some heat. Here is Vidanto's Spaghetti with Truffles.
one of my favorite ways to have the jarred black truffles is in an open face omelet. I make a truffle paste, and mix in into the beaten eggs, let sit to blend the flavor and then lightly saute in butter and cover with a lid to let it steam softly. Add some shaved parmesan cheese and let melt on top. Serve still soft.
With the heavy cream for a pasta sauce, again let the truffles sit with the cream for awhile and then heat the cream sauce in a saute pan add a pinch of salt, and toss the slightly al dente pasta with the sauce, along with some of the pasta water. Let cook until the suace has thickened and the pasta is cooked. Serve with some parmesan.
quote:Originally posted by Eccomi: It is my plan to make tagliatelle with black truffles for Christmas dinner. I have truffles, which i bought in Norcia and a few packages of panna.
Allright, first thing take your panna and throw it away. My own rule for chosing a restaurant is checking if they have any dish with panna (with the exception of deserts). If they have, than I look for another restaurant. Italian mediocre cooks use panna to lay a softening and fat layer to their too strong-tasting experiments (usually experiemnst that have a too-sharp tate because the cook has had a poor training). So, how to make your tagliatelle? While you are waiting for the water to boil, add a generous amount of butter in a pan, and let it melt in very low heat. Drop the tagliatelle in the boiling salted water and let them cook for a few minutes. Remember that egg pasta is ready after but a very short time, so that usually 2-4 minutes are enough (depending on the thickness of the tagliatelle). As the pasta is cooked, transfer it to the pan with the butter (remember to leave them somewhat moist and VERY al dente, the heat of the pan will cook them a bit more). Sparkle the tagliatelle with freshly-grated Parmigliano Reggiano cheese and stir them for one minute to mix all tastes. Place indivuidual portions of tagliatelle in the dishes and place very thin slices of truffle on top. You should use less truffle than you would in the panna-added recipe, yet the taglaitelle should develop a light (lighter than with panna) cream made of the mixture of fats from butter and cheese with the small amount of cooking water rich in "amido". Another simpler way to make them is to prepare a large serving bowl wioth a dollop of butter in the bottom, ad the strained tagliatelle, than another dollop of butter (do not fear of being too generous: when you feel the butter is too much, than you add another bit and there you are) and the cheese, bring the bowl to the table, and with flourishy gesture mix the tagliatelle in the bown with these simple ingredients, serbe them in individual dishes and shave the truffle on each dish. This recipes probably originated from the abit of preserving the truffles in butter (melt the butter, make a first layer of butter in a container, let it go hard in the fridge, place the truffles, add more butter and so on). After a few months the truffles have far less flavor, but you have a large amount of truffle-flavored butter which yo can use for preparing pasta. This was the traditional way to perserve truffles in the Appennini area, not far from Bologna, which hav a butter-based cuisine and make tagliatelle with wheat flour and eggs.
Alice Twain -- I know I was born and I know that Iâll die The in-between is mine I am mine
I wasn't going to be a kitchen nazi... my husband also says if you use cream you can't cook! As it hides mistakes and really goes well with french wines that are high in tanins..as it covers the inside of your mouth and protects it.
It is also really important to buy good butter, a real treat! Especially when it is a focal point of the dish. Margarine won't do it! Usually in Italy we use unsalted butter.
I think for Americans cream is a treat, as with Fettucini Alfredo, which is only at Alfredo's in Rome by the way.. cream,butter and parmesan.
Oh Judy, you hit my food alarm. Ask decobabe about my sermons of how Fettucine Alfredo is made properly. Suffice it to say, there is no cream at Alfredo's alla Scrofa the origal restaurant where the dish was "invented" by Alfredo di Lelio for his wife.
MEA CULPA.. sorry.. I heard it was a triple cream version.. assuming it was cream,butter and parmesan for his breast feeding wife.. I see on the site they call it triple butter, which I would have thought that then they would have added butter three times!! As in Pinocchio's tripe with parmesan added three times!!!!
I stand corrected!!! I am also an anti-cream person using the pasta water as the extra liquid to bind the sauce.
Oh I feel awful. I should have added a bunch of graemlins in my post (but there isn't one to blow kisses and mean no offence). As I wrote it is just one of my food alarms. My grandmother ate there on her honeymoon (1934) and we have a picture with her and Alfredo. She would comment that the Alfredo that is known in the states is not a true alfredo but alla panna like she would do the tortellini that I loved. So I grew up hearing the stories. We served Fettucine alla Panna at the Blue Fox for years and people insisted on calling it Alfredo even when the menu said alla panna.
Cristina A San Franciscan in Siena Read my report on the Palio di Siena
>>I wasn't going to be a kitchen nazi... my husband also says if you use cream you can't cook! As it hides mistakes and really goes well with french wines that are high in tanins..as it covers the inside of your mouth and protects it.<<
Thank you all for your input. I am not a fan of cream sauces myself, but i suppose i was fooled by the "cream" that is made by the cheese and butter. Now I am confused, because in Norcia, I was told not to use butter but oil...maybe that is if you use panna, which i won't . I, too, only use unsalted butter, but perhaps I'll go to the gourmet store for some "better" butter.
Judy, my husband loves truffles shaved onto scrambled eggs, which he enjoyed for the first time in Orvieto at il Lupo e L'Uva. I want to serve tagliatelle for dinner, because my son's young woman is vegetarian and it seems more like a dinner entree to us. I hope she doesn't pass out when she sees all the butter and cheese.
I also have a formaggio tartufatto to serve with pears, in the way I enjoyed them in Citta di Castello last month. I'll serve salad and grilled vegetables to round out the menu.
In Sicily last year, i was served linguine with shrimp and it was heavily dosed with panna....I hated it. When i inquired, I was told that pesto served with seafood is often made with panna. From now on, I'll keep everyone's advice in mind, but i usually avoid cream sauces anyway. Now...what to do with these scatole!
Happy Holidays everyone.
Pat
PS...sorry for the extra "g" in Emilia Romagna in the Mostarda thread, but I'm not sure how to go about the editing here.
Posts: 1099 | Location: Rochester, NY and Bonita Springs, Fl | Registered: 18 September 2002
Pat, Anyone can edit their own post(s) by clicking on the small pencil and paper icon to the top right of the post. Clicking on the icon reopens the original, and you can edit it as you wish.
Colleen in California
Posts: 14283 | Location: The Beautiful San Francisco Bay Area | Registered: 06 August 2001
My local grocery store is currently selling very small black French truffles. The price is $820.00US a pound. They currently have three for sale ranging from $54.00 to $35.00. I'd love to find one of these in my stocking on Christmas day.
I hope everyone has a happy holiday.
Marta
Posts: 7485 | Location: Edmonds, WA | Registered: 25 October 2001
quote:Originally posted by Eccomi: Now I am confused, because in Norcia, I was told not to use butter but oil...maybe that is if you use panna, which i won't .
The problem is slightly different. Italy has different areas with different fats habits. My family comes from Emilia Romagna and we use a lot of butter (as I have said before, when you feel it is too much, add a little bit more ^_^), but if you move to Tuscany (which is indeed very close to Emilia Romagna) butter becomes little used, except for sweets and cakes, and olive oil is everywhere. Personally I have an indipendent attitude and I use Olive oil and butter where each one tastes better. And IMHO truffles and mushrooms require butter ^______^. In particular, truffles have such a stron taste by themseles that they must be coupled with gentles tastes than that of a strong-tasting olive il (and you can't use a gentler olive oil or it will be completely overpowered by the truffle), so in this case I would stick to butter.
quote:I want to serve tagliatelle for dinner, because my son's young woman is vegetarian and it seems more like a dinner entree to us.
Thanks for all the coaching...dinner was great but not as planned.
First of all, all we were able to find tagliolini, not tagliatelle, but i don't think in this case that matters. I also got a higher grade "European Style" butter. At the market, we came accross some beautiful artichokes, so they became our primo. As coincidence would have it, they are part of La Ragazza's Christmas tradition. The truffles were great and pretty fragrant for ones from a jar. Prepared the way Alice suggested, the dish was delicious and very rich. We also enjoyed some roasted asparagus. Never got to the cheese and pears, though.
Posts: 1099 | Location: Rochester, NY and Bonita Springs, Fl | Registered: 18 September 2002
But I agree with panna not being used by good Italian cooks ( including me, hehehe...). I think that panna is bad in almost every italian dish ( apart from dessrts, of course). Nowadays unfortunately you come across it in bad restaurants and especially touristy ones. Italian housewives have also started to use panna in an effort to look sophisticated and "alla moda". I have also noticed that lately there is a lot of nouvelle and fusion cuisine appearing in Italy, especially in the more expensive restaurants.
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I have never had the chance to enjoy them except infused in olive oil. One of these days....