Truffle Pasta

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A simple truffle pasta dish, that will allow you to appreciate the incredible flavor of fresh black truffles.

Treat yourself with black truffle pasta, a simple yet amazing tasting dish that will make you understand why truffles are also known under the name “black gold” or “the diamond of the kitchen”. Just a few ingredients, but such a delight. Check out these Truffle Eggs and Truffle Oil Pasta (with Mushrooms) too!

And should you like to make some sweet truffles have a look at the Champagne Truffles!

What are truffles?

Truffles are edible fungi, like mushrooms, that grow underground among the roots of certain trees, like oak or hazelnut. They grow mostly in concentrated areas around the world, like Italy and France in Europe, New Zealand, the Pacific Northwest, and so on.

There are two sorts of truffles: the extremely expensive and hard-to-find white truffles, and the black truffles, which are expensive as well, but not quite so extreme. They are also more readily available.

Why are they so expensive?

Mostly because they are so difficult to find and grow. They need special climatic conditions, a lot of dedication, care, and investment. Truffle farms need about a decade to start producing, and the life cycle of such a farm seems to be of only about 30 years. The fungi also lose most of their flavor after about a week, so they cannot be stored properly either.

What do they taste like?

The flavor comes mostly from their aroma and not from their taste. Strong, pungent, musky, woody. If you are not familiar with it, you might even think that something is wrong when you first smell a truffle.

I don’t have the possibility of buying fresh truffles here in Germany unless I order them online. The first thing I notice when the parcel enters the house is the odor, the whole kitchen will smell of truffles before you even open the package.

William Makepeace Thackeray finds the best words to describe the flavor: “Presently, we were aware of an odor gradually coming towards us, something musky, fiery, savory, mysterious, — a hot drowsy smell, that lulls the senses, and yet enflames them— the truffles were coming.” (Memorials of Gormandizing, 1841).

How to store them?

• I used the truffles two days after I got them, but still, I was careful to store them properly during the waiting time.
• My favorite method is to bury them in a large jar full of risotto rice and place them in the fridge. Not only are the truffles perfectly stored this way, but the rice will also get some of the wonderful fungi flavors.

What do you need?

Black truffles:

• My opinion is that it’s better to eat truffles only once a year but then do it properly than to try to stretch a tiny amount to make several dishes.
• I had a larger 35 g/ 1.2 oz and a smaller 20 g/ 0.7 tuber and I used them both to make this truffle pasta recipe. It was enough to delight four people on top of about 450 g/ 1 lb of buttery noodles.

Butter:

• An important ingredient as well. I rarely cook a savory dish using so much butter, but this recipe really needs it. Butter enhances the flavor of the tubers, and you need quite a lot of it to make it count.

Other ingredients:

• Parmesan: don’t ruin such an expensive and delicate dish by using already grated Parmesan from a box. Buy a wedge of good-quality cheese and grate it yourself before adding it to the sauce.
• I had spaghetti, but tagliolini, linguine, and so on will be fine as well.

How to make black truffle pasta?

• Cook the pasta al dente. You will need some cooking water for the sauce, so once the spaghetti are almost cooked, you should have all the sauce ingredients ready for the pan.
• Making the truffle pasta sauce only takes minutes.
• Grate the Parmesan and set it aside. Cube the butter and set it aside. Grate about 2/3 of the truffles and set them aside.
• Melt the in a large heavy-bottomed skillet on medium-high heat (1).
• Add about one ladleful of pasta water (more or less 75 ml/ 2.5 fl. oz/ 1/3 cups) to the butter.
• Turn the heat down to low and stir gently until the mixture emulsifies. (2)
• Add the grated Parmesan – See Expert Tips (3).
• Once the sauce is smooth (it will take less than a minute), add the grated truffles and another splash of the cooking water. Stir gently, turn off the heat and let the sauce infuse for a minute or so while you drain the spaghetti. (4)
• Add the noodles to the skillet and stir gently to combine.

Expert tip

When adding Parmesan to this sauce (or similar sauces) you have to be very careful, so that the cheese doesn’t become grainy or clumpy. The heat should be somewhere between medium-low and low and the Parmesan should melt slowly while you stir continuously.

How to serve?

Serve immediately, with the remaining black truffles shaved on top of the dish. Sprinkle with more Parmesan if desired.

I never have side dishes with this black truffle pasta dish, I feel that it should be enjoyed as it is with nothing else that might distract from it.

You can serve a small plate of antipasti before the main dish. And dessert afterward. To keep it Italian, try the Tiramisu Cups or something like Panna Cotta or Zabaglione.

Other simple pasta dishes