Story by the Staff,
Photos courtesy of Cooking with Truffles: a Chef’s Guide

Truffles

Truffles are a delightful ingredient prized by chefs and home cooks alike. If you cook any dishes that contain this “Diamonds of the Kitchen”, Susi Gott Séguret’s enchanting book Cooking with Truffles: a Chef’s Guide will help you develop your skill in the “Art of Living Well”.  

Truffles, are mushrooms that grow in symbiosis with the roots of oaks, willows, walnuts and poplars, in an elevation between 400 and 600 meters. Truffles grow in many parts of the world where these trees are found but the most prized grow in Italy and France. Truffles were known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as “The food of the gods”, and thought of as a result of thunderbolts, heat and rain.

The French love their Perigord truffles, black with a thick, wrinkled bark, but the most highly prized by the world's epicures is the white truffle of Alba (tartufo bianco a/k/a trifola d'Alba Madonna); they mature from September to December in the wooded hills around the capital of the Langhe. The same area also gives us some of the other members of the truffle family, the "whitish truffle" i.e. tuber borchii; the spring truffles i.e. “bianchetti marzuoli” and the summer's “scorzoni”. None are as aromatic as the whites from Alba, although those from Città di Castello come quite close

Truffles are usually consumed fresh or sometimes preserved in brine. They are never cooked, they are just shaved over dishes to impart a lovely, earthy aroma and  flavor.

Pasta is the main recipient of a truffle treatment; but in Italy, where I had truffles over many dishes, there are also shaved over mashed potatoes, over risotto, over canapés and a number of other uses such as over creamy soups and some fish and seafood dishes.

Susi Gott Séguret’s book explores recipes using this divine fungus. The over 150 recipes are fairly easy to execute by both the professional chef or the home cook. In addition, you can modify a number of them to develop your own creations.

The book is available as a large size paperback (ISBN 978-1-57826-818-4) or as an eBook (978-1-57826-819-1).

To purchase a copy: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1578268184

 

 

 

 

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