Truffles Galore!  

The Magic of Fresh Truffles

Burgundy black truffle

The scent of a fresh truffle is indescribable. It fills the room almost instantly when fresh, and the flavor is heady, sweetly earthy and luxurious. Regarded as the “diamond of the kitchen” by 18th-century French gastronome Brillat-Savarin, the truffle is internationally known for its prized and unmistakable flavor.
Symbiotic in nature, fresh truffles are found in the soil beneath oak, and sometimes beech and hazel trees. By drawing carbohydrates from the tree and converting the energy to construct filaments, the spores of truffles produce an expanding web of fungus beneath the soil. In return, these filaments on the root tip collect an abundance of nutrients for the tree. It is due to this essential relationship that the truffle is unable to be cultivated.
Once the fruit emerges from the filament, young truffles rapidly increase in size and weight during the heat of August and September months. Eventually the growth slows and the fruit begins to ripen, breathing an incredible perfume through the earth. As the autumn harvest reaches its peak, this gastronomic delicacy begins to emerge in the bustling outdoor markets across Italy and France.

White “Alba” truffle

The Italian white truffle (Tuber Magnatum) is most famously associated with the Piemonte town of Alba, in the province of Cuneo, Italy. While Alba was once the center of the Italian truffle harvest, due to over-harvesting, it is now quite rare to find a true “Alba” truffle. Today, Tuber Magnatum truffles of excellent quality are harvested in various parts of Italy including Umbria, Abruzzo and Le Marche. In the world of truffles, the whites are the finest and most highly regarded of all truffles. Their season runs from late October to late December, but they are usually depleted by January.
The Burgundy truffle (Tuber Uncinatum and also Tuber Aestivum), also known as the summer truffle, is grown throughout Europe including central-eastern France, northern Italy and eastern Spain. These truffles are readily available from September through November.

Sliced Burgundy Truffle

The winter black truffle (Tuber melanosporum) is typically sourced from the Périgord region of France. It is during the month of January when black truffles are at their peak, though available as early as December until late March.
Formaggio Kitchen is proud to offer these elusive, highly esteemed delicacies on a seasonal basis. To guarantee freshness and quality, all truffles are available by special order. Please feel free to approach a member of our produce team with any questions you may have or to place an order. We are also happy to take orders or answer questions via phone at: 617-354-4750.

Dinning at Grinzane Cavour Castle

Dinning at Grinzane Cavour Castle

Dinning at the Castello Grinzane is a must for anyone who would like to re-live a little bit of history in modern elegance. Reservations are a smart thing and required to even get near the place in October and part of November (white truffle season). The auction for the largest of these beauties usually occurs at the castle annually and hosts a multitude of VIPs who populate the town of Alba as well. There is a quaint and convenient hotel, Hotel Casa Pavesi just meters from the castle offering unique room décor, breakfast on the terrace, bar and cozy reading rooms.

The dinning room at Castello Grinzane is not only an elegant atmosphere but the service is professional and discrete. High heels beware walking up to the castle, if one parks below it can be a wicked challenge on the rounded rock road as well as, taking the path towards the entrance and the uneven floors and steps once inside. This place was meant for climbing and sensible shoes plus, getting to the bathroom or better said, navigating the steps to the bathroom after a few glasses of wine can be an issue, especially when you really need to go. ;-)

While gazing up and through the windows from inside, over the expanse of the vineyard-clad hills beyond, one can not help but breathe a little bit of the history within these walls.

Dinner consisted of tagliolini with sausage ragù (sausage from the Roero region) a bottle of lively Barbera, hand-rolled bread sticks and a main course of Brasato al Barolo. Brasato is one of the ultra famous dishes from this area and is truly a must-try. The meat is soaked in Barolo wine, cloves, juniper berries and garlic for 12-24 hours then removed from that marinade and slow baked for 1½ in fresh Barolo but not before performing a sauté of carrot, celery and onions, browning the meat and then bathing it in Barolo.

After all that food no one needed dessert but they insisted with a few complimentary cookies and of course we did have to imbibe in an outstanding grappa! The waiter brought the bottle to the table after we told him a little bit about our taste preferences; he suggested this one and poured two generous glasses offering us, on his wallet, a second. God, a second glass would have done this little lady in, she would have needed a stretcher to get down the stairs.

While seated outside on the benches in the gardens encircling the castle, the night air was cool (blissfully) and the night birds extremely busy. Something came whizzing by my head at a speed so fast my hair flew up and my ears were buzzing from the speed with which this creature flew. Who knows what it was, certainly not an owl of any sort and not a bat. The lights across the valley to the other hill town were mesmerizing and suggestive, music floated up from the tent party near the hotel, laughter and the tingle of glasses while toasting; all elements adding to the ambience rendering the experience even more suggestive for a creative mind. The past oozed around us with the pride of the people of the town for the place they live and for the traditions they protect.

(August 6, 2008)

Alba & La Piola - Food & Wine Adventure

Alba & La Piola - Food & Wine Adventure

Wandering the infamous town of white truffles and fabulous wines, I realized I had a one-way ticket to paradise, Alba in the province of Cuneo. In the historic center, exists a great eatery called la Piola.

Across from the Chiesa di S. Giovanni or, il Duomo there is this simple and elegant little place to eat under the old portico. They have also placed a permanent “greenhouse” for dinning right on the piazza; this little glass house is fully enclosed with air conditioning and in the summer heat, it is a blessing to sit there and enjoy the view, eat and stay cool. The tables are set up with huge, fun and colorful charger plates with ultra comfortable chairs to rest in (such a rarity in Italy, and a change from the classic Osteria chair).

The menu offers excellent dishes typical to the region with nice, courteous waitresses and waiters serving everything very promptly. For starters, an assorted cheese plate was a must just to sample the local cheese creations as well as a fabulous insalata russa. Tagliolini with an oil and garlic or “white” sauce of ground rabbit dressed this homemade pasta, which was out of this world! There were also agnolotti made with a mix from a roast of various meats and these were dressed in the sauce of the roast, something I had never tasted before in all my days in Italy. The sauce was limpid gravy per se, light in weight and exquisite in flavor. The agnolotti are a type of tortellini except the ends are brought together at the center of the “cushion” and pressed together. Some other versions of these wonderful homemade agnolotti are with the ends pulled together similar to a sack as if tied with string at the top. All this fare was accompanied by a nice chilled white Roero Arneis another great white wine produced in the Roero hills above the river Tanaro; and since this was gastronomic play-time, dessert was a must, which was accompanied with a wonderful Moscato d’Asti by, none other than this little piglet’s favorite, I Vignaioli di S. Stefano. Dessert was the classic Bunet; a type of chocolate pudding with crushed amaretti. Bunet Recipe
(July 29, 2008)

Cherry Soup!

Cherry Soup!

Dinning at Antico Ristorante agli Schioppi, this creature just had to try the angel hair with black truffle from the mountains surrounding Vicenza (Monte Berici). I hesitated to order them not sure when black truffle season was (a fanatic about white truffles from Alba, season Oct – Jan), but had a hankering for them and thus, threw all thoughts of doubt to the wind. This dish of heaven was the best pasta I had had in such a long time in fact, my partner just about fell over telling me how outstanding the flavor of the truffle really was. This restaurant served lots of polenta with the various dishes, not in quantity but just the fact that it accompanied many of the dishes (no kidding, polenta is synonymous with Vicenza)!

They brought an antipasto of baccalà mousse with white grilled polenta that was incredible, sort of reminded her of the fish mousse served on the terrace on the lake at Isola Madre. There was the classic Vincentian veal liver with glazed onions on a bed of polenta and sauce that was worth every bite particularly for liver lovers and for those who are not (moi), it was fantastic; so sure I would have hated it, ha! Veal liver is divine; tender and light in flavor and not as dense as beef liver and definitely lacking the heady heavy liver flavor. If anyone hates the taste of beef liver, then you should give this a try just to put your taste buds right with the world. ;-)

Finishing off the meal with a dessert, which truly no one had room for, was definitely one of the smarter choices made in my life one I would not soon forget. This simple and light little offering was called “cherry soup.” These were hand-pitted local grown cherries (Marostica, and Vicenza are famous for their cherries) swimming in their own cherry juice with a dash of a secret spice topped with a tiny ball of spearmint green gelato and cherry liqueur. The soup was served cold with giant soup spoons to ensure you did not miss a drop of the luscious juice. I had visions of picking some cherries from those trees in the garden or buying some in Marostica and making up my own batch of this mix to save and serve on those hot lazy summer evenings…guess I need to figure out how they made the mint gelato; did they mash and “Cuisinart” the leaves or did they make a very concentrated tisane?A bottle of Amarone, one of the other famous wines from the Veneto region accompanied this meal and, never having tasted a good glass of it, this little angel was impressed even with 15% alcohol. After a bottle I was far from tipsy because good wine (not that cheap 2-buck Chuck) does not give you headaches, does not turn you tipsy even after a bottle and it is usually consumed over a longer period of time and slowly (slow meals, slow eating). Unfortunately, the Amarone expert will have to fill you in on the beauty of this wine, this is truly out of Snow White’s league

July 21, 2008