Food + Drink 13
Don’t put truffle
on tomato dishes
guide to the fashionable f lavour
Fine Food Specialist’s
Black Truffle Oil
finefoodspecialist.co.uk,
£9.95 (100ml)
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The only black truffle oil
that actually smells of
black truffle. The truffle
is there but it’s not
overpowering.Zigante Tartufi
white truffle oil
tastecroatia.co.uk, £13.
(100ml)
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A slightly harsh aroma
but good-quality olive oil
and it’s nice and nutty on
the palate. Use it to finish
grilled veg or fresh pasta.Cooks’ ingredients
Drizzle of Truffle Oil
waitrose.com, £3 (100ml)
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One word: bland. This is
just a bottle of good
olive oil.Urbani white truffle oil
finefoodspecialists.co.uk,
£11.95 (55ml)
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Thoroughly disappointing
for such a well-known
truffle supplier. The bottle
lists real truffle as an
ingredient, but it’s
almost flavourless.La Española olive oil
flavoured with
white truffle
sainsburys.co.uk, £2.
(250ml)
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This is just flavoured oil
with no truffle — it just
smells and tastes of
poor-quality olive oil.Truffle oil taste test by Italian restaurateur Luca Dusi ta
White truffle oil
truffleguysuk.com,
£19.95 (200ml)
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An intense smell of white
truffle, but poor-quality
olive oil means it burns
your tongue slightly. It’s
delicate, as white truffle
should be. Use on risotto.GETTY IMAGESwhite truffle oil. A teaspoon stirred into
portions of any of these dishes will provide
enough flavour, he explains, without over-
powering them.
It doesn’t work on all dishes, Kenedy
says. Avoid adding it to tomato sauces or
oily fish. However, truffle oil drizzled
over anchovies or scallops or
lobster tastes delicious. It’s
too powerful to use on its
own on such delicate
dishes so you’ll need to
turn your oil into a
dressing — three
parts truffle oil, one
part olive oil — to
dilute the flavour.
This tastes just as
good over salad or
artichokes.
If you want to add a
hint of luxury to a classic
dinner party starter, Giovann
Attard, the head chef of Norma in
London, recommends a baked cheese with
truffle oil. “Bake something like camem-
bert, cut it open and add a drizzle — no
more than a teaspoon,” he says. “Then you
want a vehicle like a crostini to carry the
cheese but not overpower the flavour.”Truffles are associated with savoury
dishes but the earthy, umami notes of truf-
fle can go just as well in some desserts, At-
tard says. Next month Norma will host a
themed supper club where a chocolate and
truffle torte will be on the menu.
Another idea is using white truffle
oil in a panna cotta instead of va-
nilla extract, or adding ap-
proximately 60ml to an
ice cream recipe. “You’ll
want to choose a light-
er white truffle oil for
this, rather than a
heavy black one,” At-
tard says. “What
you’ve got to remem-
ber is that truffles are
strong and used to add
flavour to dishes, so
don’t overdo it.”
In restaurants, remem-
ber to stay seasonal. White
winter truffle season starts in late
October and runs until the end of the year,
and black winter truffle season is from Jan-
uary to February. “Any dish served outside
that is unlikely to be made with real truffle,
rather, tasteless white summer truffle and
a lot of oil,” Attard says.Risotto with black truffle