truffle hunting in le marche

wine & cheese
1
I get scrambled
eggs and crostini,
sprinkled with white
truffle shavings.
It might not look
much, but by golly,
I can taste the
truffle. That’s the
secret – keep the
ingredients simple
and let the fungus
do the flavouring.
TRUFFLE HUNTING
IN LE MARCHE
Above: Edible truffles are held in
high esteem in haute cuisine
me that it’s actually possible to cultivate
truffles, although so far he’s only had
success with the black variety. Seedlings of
oak or ash are inoculated with spores and
nurtured in greenhouses. After a year he
transplants them to suitable ground and
regularly checks their roots for signs of the
fungus. It can take eight years for them to
be productive and he pulls up those that
show no promise. So far he’s planted over
4,000 trees in his 15 hectares, and reckons
he gets around 200 kg a year.
He’s so successful that in 2010 he
was called to the UK by Prince Philip
to investigate why the trees on the
Sandringham Estate were not producing
any truffles. He presented a jar of truffle
cream to the Prince who took a sniff,
recoiled in horror and asked him if it
was stuff that he used for his beard. He’d
obviously never encountered truffles before.
After a fruitless search with his dogs,
Giorgio’s verdict was that the trees were too
young and that the Prince would have to
wait. Given he’s over 90, he may well not
4
live to see royal truffle production.
The rain’s getting heavier but Bobo is
undeterred. He’s digging again and over
the course of half an hour we collect 100
grams of white truffles with a street value of
EUR 400. Giorgio says that it’s best to hunt
in the early morning as later it warms up
and there are too many competing smells
to confuse the dog. I ask him if he ever uses
pigs to sniff out the truffles and he shakes
his head and smiles: “You can’t talk to pigs,”
he tells me. We call it a day and I’m half
hoping that I might get a small specimen
in payment for my work as truffle assistant
but I’m sadly disappointed. Fortunately,
I’ve been asked to call in on Mayor Andrea
Pierotti before I leave and he hands me
a small paper bag. There’s no disguising
what’s inside and, as I take my seat on the
plane, I find myself looking forward to my
very own truffle feast. •
Visit Marche Turismo (en.turismo.marche.
it) for tourist information about the region. Marche
Holiday (www.marcheholiday.it) can arrange
trips and accommodation.
atelier
over. He brushes him aside and feeds him
a small biscuit as a reward. I watch as he
carefully excavates the spot and suddenly
there’s a glimpse of white in the dark earth.
Giorgio gets out his knife and prises out a
specimen about the size of a golf ball. He
scrapes off the earth, holding it over the
hole so any spores present can seed the
next truffle. Now I get a whiff of its strong
earthy, slightly sweet, perfume and my
mouth begins to water.
I’ve arrived the previous day in
Acqualagna, in the Marche region of Italy,
which prides itself on producing truffles all
year round. As a result, this village supplies
around two-thirds of the Italian market,
around 50 to 60 tons, and every year holds
three truffle fairs to coincide with the
harvests. In February and August, it’s black
truffles but now, at the end of October, it’s
the Fiera Nazionale del Tartufo Bianco
(acqualagna.com/fiere-tartufo/fiera-nazionale),
the white truffle event. The village square is
lined with stalls packed with fresh white and
black, as well as jars of preserved pastes,
creams and oils. Today the black are going
3
l
66
Due to a bad year, supply
of truffles is at a 20-year
low.The famine has driven
the price through the roof
and they’re now selling at
around EUR 4,000 a kilo,
one-tenth that of gold.
for around EUR 800 per kilo whilst the
white range from EUR 2,500 for walnut
size to EUR 3,500 for golf balls. I get to
hold the biggest one on display, weighing
750 grams – a bargain at only EUR 6,000.
Even better, all the restaurants have
special truffle menus so there’s ample
opportunity for tasting. My hosts hustle
me into the Osteria del Parco (www.
osteriadelparco.net) restaurant and I get a plate
of scrambled eggs and crostini, sprinkled
with white truffle shavings. It might not look
much, but by golly, I can taste the truffle,
and that’s the secret – keep the ingredients
simple and let the exotic fungus do the
flavouring. It’s difficult to describe but it’s a
taste you’ll never forget – a fusion of garlic
and mushroom.
Over the next couple of days,
everything I eat comes with truffle – pasta,
polenta, Carpaccio, veal slices, even pears
for desert have a couple of shavings. And if
that’s not enough, there are often truffles on
the table so you can grate extra helpings.
Back on the truffle hunt, Giorgio tells
2
2012 l december
atelier l december l 2012
T
his really is a shaggy dog
story. It’s raining in the woods
and I’m following Giorgio
Remedia and his long-haired
Italian Pointer, who’s running
in front, sniffing the ground.
He’s searching for the elusive white truffle,
which is an underground mushroom,
growing in the root system of trees like oak
and poplar. This year has been a bad one
for this exotic fungus – deep snow in spring,
and then an exceptionally dry summer,
means that supply is at a 20-year low. The
famine has driven the price through the
roof and they’re now selling at around EUR
4,000 a kilo, about one-tenth that of gold.
Suddenly, in the undergrowth, I see
Bobo frantically digging with both his front
paws and Giorgio wastes no time in taking
PHOTOGRAPHS: RUPERT PARKER
If you’re going hunting for scarce white truffles, then the best chance of finding any is
in Acqualagna, in the Pesaro-Urbino Province of Italy, as it supplies two-thirds of the
country’s market. Rupert Parker set out to try his luck.
1. Giorgio and
Bobo, digging
for truffles
2. Scarce large
white truffles
3. Truffle-seller in
Acqualagna
4. Sliced truffle
67