Bianchetto truffle ✦ ◆

Truffe blanchette

What it is

It ripens from January into late April, filling the months when Alba's white truffle is finished, and sells for a fraction of it. The aroma opens mushroomy and mild then hardens towards garlic and gas within days, while the veins — coarser than any other truffle's — darken to red-brown, which is how you read its age at the counter.

In the kitchen

It has three or four good days, and its perfume dies the moment it meets a pan. Shave it at the table over something warm and fatty — buttered eggs, tagliolini — with the heat already underneath doing the work.

Goes with

Egg Butter Parmesan Garlic Olive oil Artichoke Cream

Same species

Bagnoli truffle Musky truffle Burgundy truffle Chinese truffle Oregon white truffle Pecan truffle

In season alongside

Crottin de Chavignol Woodcock Blonde morel Brussels sprout Burdock root Butternut squash

Something wrong here, or missing? Tell us