White Truffle Butter

This is recipe #2 in our current truffle "adventure." Galya and I were faced with quite a few days of truffles and not enough free days in which to use them. A little research led to a couple of ways to extend the life of a truffle, since keeping it in the fridge, keeps it around and aromatic for only a few days. Truffle oil and truffle butter are the two basic choices, and butter sounds better.

Truffle butter is a great way to make a little truffle go a long way, stirring it into hot pasta or dotting it on hot rice or vegetables.  It's also a way to insure that you have the flavor and scent of truffle ready and waiting. Fresh truffles don't last forever; the scent fades and, soon, they go bad. Imagine the horror of unwrapping your last truffle, only to find it ugly and shriveled! Look into your future, and if you don't see yourself using that fresh truffle before it's too late, consider making and freezing some truffle butter to keep your world whole for just a little longer.


White Truffle Butter

The ratio is up to you. In the butter pictured, we used one pound of good butter and one quarter ounce of white Alba truffle. Don't use too much butter, thinking you can stretch the truffle and make it last forever. You can always add more plain butter when making your final dish, but if you need more truffle flavor, you would be forced to include a lot of butter in the recipe. So, a little bit concentrated is probably better.


Ingredients

7g white Alba truffle (one small truffle, in this case)
1 pound butter
salt, optional


Directions

Bring the butter to room temperature. In a bowl, whip the butter until smooth and creamy using a heavy spoon.

In another small bowl, finely grate the cleaned truffle. Fold the grated truffle into the softened butter, stirring until the truffle is evenly distributed.

We recommend that you season to taste with salt, which is good if you plan to spread the truffle butter directly on bread or crackers, in addition to using the butter in your hot dishes.

Give the butter a few hours at room temperature, which allows the flavors to blend, then it's time to refrigerate it.  We put the bowl directly in the refrigerator to harden, then broke it into quarters for these pictures.

From here, you can put the butter in a ziplock bag and freeze it, breaking or cutting off pieces as you need it.  They say you can keep it, frozen, for up to a month.  Who "they" is and what happens after a month is the question.  Frozen foods are safe for a long time, and truffle butter should be no different.  The flavor probably fades over time, so my advice is enjoy the truffle butter in the next month, and don't tempt fate.

Farfalle with Parmesan, Sauteed Pearl Onions, and White Truffles

Galya and I recently won a contest at Marx Foods, and were gifted with caviar and fresh Italian White Alba Truffles.

Italian White Alba Truffles

I'd never had truffles before, and didn't know what to expect.  The smell alone is amazing.  It's hard to describe, so I'll let a better writer say it... 

Presently, we were aware of an odour gradually coming towards us, something musky, fiery, savoury, mysterious, -- a hot drowsy smell, that lulls the senses, and yet enflames them, -- the truffles were coming. -- William Makepeace Thackeray

Wow.  That's a lot of passion for one little ingredient.  Personally, I think he might have been a little bit pent up and getting more out of the truffles than many of us, but who am I to judge?


With this dramatic buildup of the truffle in mind, we went simple for our first truffle meal.  It was so good that it's likely that simple will be the theme for each upcoming truffle dish.

Farfalle with Parmesan, Sauteed Pearl Onions, and White Alba Truffles

Serves 2


6 oz dried farfalle pasta
12 pearl onions (I used 4 each of red, yellow, and white, but only because I had a mixed bag)
butter
1 oz good Parmesan cheese, shaved with a vegetable peeler
1 small Italian White Alba Truffle (or about 1/4 of an ounce of any good truffle)

course salt, such as kosher salt or sea salt

Bring a pot of water to boil for the pasta and salt the water if you like.  Boil until al dente, then drain.

Meanwhile, boil some water in a small saucepan, and blanch the pearl onions for about five minutes.  Have a small bowl of ice water handy, and transfer the onions to the ice water to cool.  Use your fingers to slip the skins off of the onions, then slice each onion in half, lengthwise.

Dry the saucepan and return it to medium heat.  Add a bit of butter to the pan, and once it's melted, add the onions.  Stir occasionally and let the onions caramelize a bit.  When the onions are done, remove from heat and set the pan aside.

After the pasta is ready and drained in a colander, put the pasta and onions in a large bowl, and toss with more butter and half of the cheese.  Using a cheese grater, grate the truffle directly onto the pasta and toss lightly.  Top with the remainder of the Parmesan cheese and some coarse salt.

We shaved a little extra truffle on the top, as you can see.  Although the scent is RIGHT there when you have the plate in front of you, when tossed in the buttery pasta, they tend to disappear.  I like to visually announce their presence as well.

...and serve with the rest of the white wine that you've been drinking while cooking.