preserve the truffle
HOW TO CLEAN TRUFFLE
Truffles are very delicate, and cleaning them must be done with extreme care. This advice applies to both white and black truffles. To clean them, brush away any dirt under a thin stream of cold water using a small brush, without using too much force.
If the truffle is covered in a thick layer of soil, you can immerse it in a bowl of cold water for a minute to soften it and allow it to be cleaned with a brush. If the soil is embedded in small cavities, you can use a knife, but be careful to work very gently so as not to damage the truffle's surface.
refrigerator
Storing truffles in the refrigerator is quite effective and consists of wrapping them in absorbent paper towels, which must be changed at least once a day to prevent them from becoming too moist and spoiling the product. Black truffles can be stored this way for up to 10 days, and white truffles for a week.
IN OIL
In this case, you need to place the truffle (both white and black) in a jar, slice it into strips, cover it with olive oil, and refrigerate it. It will last about 7-10 days. You can then use the oil to season risotto or other dishes to which you want to add a hint of truffle.
FREEZER
This method is recommended for preserving truffles for very long periods, up to a year. Wash the truffle, dry it, and place it in a food-safe bag, or grate it and place it in the bag. Vacuum-sealing is recommended.
When opening the bag, use the frozen truffle.
However, this method is not suitable for white truffles: being very delicate, it would lose most of its aroma.
SAUCE
To make a truffle sauce (lasting a week), combine 25 g of grated truffle with 60 ml of olive oil, a pinch of salt and pepper, and mix everything together. In this case, unlike preserving in oil, you no longer have the whole truffle or slices to use in your dishes, but a cream that can be used to season the main ingredients of your recipes.
IN RICE
A controversial preservation method: storing the truffle in a glass jar covered with rice and refrigerated. This is only useful for short-term storage, lasting one or two days at most, because the rice tends to dry out the truffle, making it dry. In this case, however, we'll obtain a flavored rice that can be used for an excellent risotto.
HOW TO COOK WITH TRUFFLES
But how?
At this point, the truffle is ready to be enjoyed. But how? There's a big difference between white truffles and black truffles: while the former is best when raw and simply grated, the latter is best when cooked.
So for the white truffle the most suitable recipes are the simple ones that place it at the centre of the dish combined with delicate flavours, such as tagliolini with grated truffle, egg all'occhio
beef, minced meat or risottos.
Black truffle, on the other hand, releases its full aroma when cooked gently, for example in fillings, risottos, meatballs, soufflés, finger foods, and pâtés.
And, why not, even with fish.
