Today I was fortunate enough to acquire an Oregon white truffle. The smell alone of this magnificent fungi made me want to rub it all over my body and see what it would attract. It smelled so good my wife asked me if she could lick it. We both had to resist our impulses and made it home with an intact piece of heaven. It would not stay that way for long. I thought for a while what would be the best use of it and came up with a few ideas. I hit the grocery store and picked up a few essential ingredients and got to work.
The first thing I thought of that would extend the truffle to its fullest potential was a truffle butter. A half pound of Minnesota's finest sweet cream butter a little lemon juice some truffle oil, shallots, garlic and about a third of my chunk of heaven and I got a beautiful log of truffle butter.
Next up would be an appetizer and only one thing made sense to me. Carpaccio. I picked up a perfect piece of beef tenderloin sliced it about a quarter inch thick and pounded it flat. Seasoned it with thyme, salt and pepper then squeezed some fresh lemon juice on it drizzled it with truffle oil shaved some parmesan and truffle on it and we had a fabulous starter.
Then it was on to the main attraction. My wife and I love risotto so this was a no brainer. I got some nice cremini mushrooms and made a beautiful mushroom and truffle risotto. It was creamy and flavorful and gave of that incredible aroma of truffle. As a side dish we had asparagus with truffle butter. I served all of this with a nice Italian white, Zuani Vigne a light and crisp yet flavorful wine. Sometimes it is very good to be me.
