All About Truffles

I am a big fan of truffles and I’m talking about the truffles pigs and dogs find in the ground that are used to add their “perfumy fragrance” and intoxicating flavor into a simple pasta dish or bowl of risotto. Hard to find fresh here in the United States and prohibitively expensive even if you are able to find them, I resort to the more modestly priced truffle oil.
I wanted to know more about truffles, how they are found, where they come from in Italy, who can take them from the ground so I asked my friend Lola, who lives in Italy and has been out hunting for truffles many times, to answer some questions I have about this elusive tuber. These are questions I hope you find interesting because Lola’s responses are terrific.

Featured Contributor
Many of you are familiar with Lola from my interview with her and then her brilliant post on Pasta e Fagioli. She is a wonderful food writer whose writing takes you right into her kitchen. I’ve asked Lola to become a featured contributor on The Reluctant Gourmet Cooking Blog so we can all enjoy more of her superb writing. Of course you can get a lot more of her on her own blog, Aglio, Olio & Peperoncino, but it will be great having her join us here.
“I heart tartufi”
I’m glad you asked me to write about truffles, RG, because I love to speak about the foods I love best. Truffles are in my top 5 favorite foods, along with chocolate, seafood, tomatoes, and basil.
Preposterously elusive, harvested with spy-story secrecy, imbued with an otherworldly mix of sublime and naughty fragrances and often confused with the fine chocolate with the same name, the truffle has been prized by peasants and nobles alike for centuries.
This quote from the French writer Alexandre Dumas sums up the infatuation:
“The most learned men have been questioned as to the nature of this tuber, and after two thousand years of argument and discussion their answer is the same as it was on the first day: We do not know. The truffles themselves have been interrogated, and have answered simply: Eat us and praise the Lord.”
Are there professional truffle hunters or do locals find them and sell them to distributors? And how deep are truffles buried in the ground?




Panko-crusted mahi. Mmm. It sounds very swanky, but what exactly is “panko?” Panko is the Japanese word for bread crumbs.