An amazing lunch of white Truffles

I had some editing errors on the food menu so I updated this blog on 11/4/13 at 19:00 local time.

Yesterday, on Thursday, as a part of the tour of the piedmont region, Ivan took me by train to the eastern part of the Piedmont state to the small city of Alba. Alba is the white Truffle capital of Italy. They train and use dogs to hunt the truffles, in season, in the hills and valleys of this area. 

The restaurant is below street level in the old part of town. From the pictures in the web album you can see the domed brickwork which makes up the interior of the restaurant.The restaurant, famous for its White Truffle recipes, is called Enoteca and its on the main Piazza.

Now for the important part, the lunch itself. Please don't count the calories, I didn't. But I have been very careful not to overeat while here, knowing we were going to have a lunch like this.

 The appetizer was Polenta e Salsicca. The polenta was firm but very creamy, and balanced the sauce extremely well. 

The wine was a 2011 Langhe Nebbiolo, a dry red wine (an early Barolo) local to the area. Really liked how it balanced the food. Even with my suspect taste buds, it was good. 

Now the best part.

My past dish was Produtiori del Bebbabesco, A very thin fettucci with a light wine sauce and grated slivers of white truffles. The truffles are a bit earthy, and were wonderfully balanced by the slight sweetness of the sauce. 

 Ivan doesn't eat pasta (and he claims he is Italian) so he ordered Tajorbim and white truffles, a sort of carpaccio of beef. For his main course (secondi), he had veal in a truffle and wine sauce (Stufeto al Porolo) and I had lamb in a red wine sauce, Lamb Elle Ebbe. I had to taste everything, and it was worth the calories, even if I have to walk everywhere for the next month.

Couldn't pass on dessert, after all this is waist busting time and don't know when I will get a meal like this again. 

 I chose the Hazelnut Nocciola with persimmons and pomegranate seeds, not truffles here. and our appertifs were regional as well, a Limoncello and a Bobolo Chimoto, both locally produced.

The only thing left was to find our way back to the train station and sleep on the 90 minutes back to Torino. 

It was a very magical lunch, something I don't think I will have the opportunity to repeat for a very long time. Ivan, our tour guide, went above his duty in setting this diversion up. And I had to purchase a white truffle and Piedmont cookbook. Just going to have to find a substitute.

There are more pictures on this web link: Truffle Lunch Pictures