Truffles

Feeling rich or reckless? Hankering to buy a voluptuous gift for yourself or your best foodie friend? The French truffle season opens the last week of November. In the Périgord, the world’s greatest black truffle region, pigs, dogs and trufflers (human truffle hunters) will be beating the bushes (or more literally, the forests of great oak and chestnut trees, in search of the precious fungus. While most connoisseurs pledge their troth to the white Alba truffle of Italy, I have always loved cooking with the Périgord truffle (the white truffle is generally just grated over food, especially Pasta).

 Buy Aquila Truffles here

Truffles are found four to five inches underground, growing on the roots of oaks and a few other trees. Since they can’t be seen, they need to be sniffed out. Pigs have great noses for locating truffles and will naturally root them out. But pigs love truffles as much as we do, and will swallow them on the spot if they are not restrained (and as you can see from the size, it takes a tough man to restrain a large pig). Dogs, which can be trained to find truffles, but have no interest in eating them, are the preferred scout of most trufflers. P.S. If you cant get fresh truffles, we have the Aquila Truffles; the next best thing!

A Truffle Pig at work!