Matt and Jen's Excellent Italian Adventure: White Truffle (tartufi bianchi) Hunt!!

What is a white truffle hunt you ask? Well, you hire a guide with dogs and you go can traipsing through the woods while the dogs sniff their way to these little subterranean fungi! The area near Alba, which lies in the Piemonte region (same region as the town we are living) is revered as being the capital of this fungus, which is possibly the most expensive food in the world (up to $1,000 a pound!). Since we only live 1.5 hours from here it made a great saturday morning trip!

Some interesting facts about white truffles: you can only find these little guys from September to January (November being the best and when we went) and you never cook them. Black truffles are cooked, but never cook white truffles and they are only good for 10 days (I learned that in the class). The white truffle is best served with simple dishes such as cheese and olive oil, risotto, or pasta without sauce or very light sauce.

After we arrived in Italy I sought out a truffle hunt and after reviewing guide books and internet posts I chose La Casa del Trifulau in Costigliole d'Asti (www.lacasadeltrifulau.it), because their program seemed the most intriguing and they could do the tour in English. Their program started out with an introduction to the trifulau and the truffle dogs:

Next we headed out to the woods for the hunt with the mother dog and one of her sons in training. The dogs sniff the ground and they start digging if they smell the truffle. Next the guide digs the truffle out the rest of the way and the dogs get treats for finding the truffles. We asked the guide how much a truffle dog costs and he said about $10,000 and they take years to train! They sure are cute....