Truffles, Truffles, Truffles

My husband absolutely adores Truffles. When it's the season he wants to eat Truffles on everything. He asks chefs to prepare meals around the delicious fungi!
The other day while dining at 87 Vines Restaurant in Yonkers, my husband had the opportunity to make a purchase. To his delight two salesman from Italy came in for our friend Gino, who is the proprietor of the restaurant, to take a look and sample some of the Truffles that they had for sale. It was my husbands lucky day!
After weighing the truffles and bargaining over the pricing my darling came home with a truffle that delighted us all.

While I know that this may not be the most appealing object to look at I have to tell you that the aroma and the taste emitted from the White Truffle is most magnificent! The only thing I had to do was decide what to make with this, that would compliment the flavor of the truffle and make my husband happy.
I decided to make a homemade tagliatelle pasta with a porcini and butter sauce with freshly grated parmesan cheese. It was a very simple sauce, and the fattiness from the butter was made to enhance the flavor from the truffle.
For the sauce I melted a stick of unsalted butter,  (1/4 pound), added 3 whole cloves of garlic. I slowly melted the butter letting the garlic cook in the butter without getting any color. Then I added 1/4 cup of porcini mushrooms, which had been soaked, and sliced, to the melted butter. Cook this on low heat.
While the pasta is cooking, remove the whole cloves of garlic and discard. Season the butter with salt, black pepper and a little grated fresh nutmeg.
Add the shaved truffles into the porcini and butter. Reserve some of the truffle to grate on top of the pasta. Before draining the pasta add one soup ladle of the pasta water into the porcini, truffle butter.
Drain the pasta.
Add pasta to a serving bowl and top with freshly grated parmesan cheese and toss the pasta. As you are tossing the pasta to make sure it's getting coated with the cheese, start adding your butter sauce to the pasta. tossing so all the pasta gets a nice coat of the delicious buttery nutty sauce!
I didn't add more grated truffles to my portion. I thought it was perfect the way it was. I should have taken a picture of my husbands dish. He couldn't get enough!

P.S. If fresh truffles are not available you can always make this dish without. Just use extra Porcini mushrooms, and if fresh porcini is not available you can always find them dried in a good Italian market.

Buon Appetito
xoxoxo
Lorraine

Veal Bolognese

This is one of John's favorite dishes. John is my oldest son. He's not home right now, he's on location with work and will be missing this meal. That's why I'm making a whole bunch of it, reserving what's not getting tossed with the pasta tonight, (before adding the cream) and I'll freeze it. I'll make him a nice bowl of Rigatoni when he gets home next week.

This is made with ground veal, it really is an amazing treat. The veal has such a delicate flavor that marries so well with the other ingredients, a carrot trinity. (Onions, carrots and garlic)

If you don't want to use veal,  use beef and or pork , they also work very well in a Bolognese Sauce.

 To make this Bolognese Sauce you will need the following:

1 pound of ground veal

3 carrots, grated

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 quart fresh tomato sauce or

1 large can of crushed tomatoes

1 bay leaf

salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

rosemary, a pinch

porcini mushrooms*, 3 tablespoons

some people like to add celery to this dish, I don't, but you can!

In a sauce pan heat up a few teaspoons of olive oil and brown your meat.

Add the chopped onions, grated carrots, and chopped garlic to the meat.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

 Add the quart of tomato sauce, and with a wooden spoon stir until all ingredients are well incorporated.

Add additional seasoning and the porcini mushrooms*

Simmer for 2 - 3 hours until the sauce turns a nice rich color.

At this time, if you would like, add some milk or cream to make the sauce "pink"

Serve the sauce over a thick cut pasta such as a Tagliatelle, or a Rigatoni.

*porcini mushrooms can be purchased dried. Reconstitute them in water, or some white wine. You can add the liquid from the mushrooms to the meat sauce but make sure you strain the liquid. Porcini mushrooms can be gritty.

Serve the pasta with some grated parmesan cheese, or the cheese of your choice, and enjoy!

Buon Appetito!

xoxoxo

Lorraine