{"id":453,"date":"2009-01-05T09:36:32","date_gmt":"2009-01-05T09:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marialiberati.com\/blog2\/?p=453"},"modified":"2009-01-05T09:36:32","modified_gmt":"2009-01-05T09:36:32","slug":"tartufi-food-of-the-gods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/2009\/01\/05\/tartufi-food-of-the-gods\/","title":{"rendered":"Tartufi, food of the Gods.."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cocullo.jpg\"<\/a>\"tartufi.jpg\"<\/a>\"oyster-risotto.jpg\"<\/a>
\n\u00a0copyright, 2008, art of living,PrimaMedia,Inc, The Basic Art of Italian Cooking
\nTartufi (truffles)\u00a0are considered by many to be \u00a0a ‘mystery of nature’.\u00a0 Gaio Plinio Secondo known as Plinio il Vecchio<\/a>, born in 79 AD \u00a0wrote in Naturalis Historia- ‘that tartufi are born spontaneously and not from seeds and they live without roots’, according to Plinio the origin of tartufi\u00a0\u00a0 remain always in an ‘aura of mystery’ and to this day that remians true..
\nAccording to botanists tartufi (truffles) are categorized as a ‘fungus’\u00a0that live under ground that is rich in water, minerals and near the roots of a tree. They live in symbiosis with the tree root.
\nTartufi are rich in fiber ,a complete protein and easily digested.
\nTruffles have long been\u00a0a part of the history of the gourmet table. It was said that Lord Byron kept a truffle on his desk, he believed that the perfume of the truffle ignited his creativity. Alexander Dumas (the writer of The Three Miusketeers) described tartufi as one ofthe most maginifient ingredients of the table.
\nYou can find truffles in many regions of Italy-Abruzzo, Tuscany, Umbria and others. For this a national association known as the”Associazione Nazionale Citta di Tartufo” (National Association of Truffle Cities) has been formed to discover new ways of finding and growing this ‘mystical fungus’.
\nTruffles (tartufi) come in black and white. The white truffle is the more delicate and costly. Most gourmet stores carry truffles But if you canlt find fres htruffles, you can find them jarred in olive oil or truffle oil.
\nTruffles have a strong taste and a very little goes a long way. To experience the taste of truffles, drizzle (sparingly) some truffle oil on top of a plate of risotto or grate (sparingly) some fresh truffle on a plate of pasta or pizza. Not even a full teaspoon of grated truffle is needed to experience the flavor.
\nSince we live in a region where truffles are found- I always find presents of a tartufi or two left for me at home in the winter. Truffles have become my favorite present and I use them to flavor everything.
\nHere is a recipe we have been working on in The Basic Art of Italian Cooking kitchen here in Italy to experiecne the truffles in season now:
\nRisotto con Tartufo<\/strong>
\n*1 cup of rice (carnaroli or arborio)
\n*2\u00a0\u00a0tblsps + 2 tsps\u00a0extra virgin olive oil
\n*2 scallions
\n*4 large oysters-steamed
\n*1 white truffle
\n*3 tblsps parmigiano cheese grated
\n* 2 quarts Vegetable Broth
\n*1\/2 cup dry white wine
\nHeat vegetable broth till boiling,\u00a0lower heat and let simmer.\u00a0
\nCut scallions into small rounds. Place olive oil in saute pan and heat, place in scallions and saute till just about golden. Place in rice. Saute for 30 sedonds.\u00a0\u00a0 Add in white wine,\u00a0 consistently stirring. When liquid is absorbed begin adding in broth approx 1\/2 cup at a time and stirring till liquid is absorbed. Repeaat till rice is cooked till al dente (approx 18 minutes). Stir in parmigiano cheese and drizzle approx 2 tsps on top, stir risotto. Remove from heat.
\nDivide into 4 portions and place on 4 plates. On top of risotto, place an open steamed clam and on top of this place a few very thin slices of white truffle.
\nFor more great recipes get a copy of the best selling book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking at https:\/\/www.marialiberati.com<\/a>
\n“Mangia Bene, Vivi Bene”
\nMaria<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0copyright, 2008, art of living,PrimaMedia,Inc, The Basic Art of Italian Cooking Tartufi (truffles)\u00a0are considered by many to be \u00a0a ‘mystery of nature’.\u00a0 Gaio Plinio Secondo known as Plinio il Vecchio,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,27,7,50,57,11,24,232,438],"tags":[499,9,103,500,501,127,360,76,502,503,425],"class_list":["post-453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abruzzo","category-caro-diariodear-diary","category-cucina","category-facts","category-features","category-recipes","category-risotto","category-tuscan","category-umbria","tag-botanists","tag-food","tag-mushrooms","tag-oysters","tag-plinio-il-vecchio","tag-recipe","tag-rice","tag-risotto","tag-scallions","tag-tartufi","tag-truffles"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}