Italy boasts the world’s oldest and largest tradition of truffle hunting, which is part of the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list. Over 70,000 licensed hunters wander in the Italian forests at night with their dogs, which are essential to detect the scent of truffles beneath the soil.
Its truffle capital is Alba in the Piedmont region, which is home to some of Italy’s best-loved and most famous wines, including Barolo and Barbaresco. Both these wines pair wonderfully with truffle dishes, and you’ll be able to enjoy the local wines of Alba if you attend one of its famous truffle festivals.
Running for nine weeks from October to December The International White Truffle Fair of Alba is a celebration of the white truffle and boasts cooking demonstrations, wine and truffle matching classes and truffle sensory analysis workshops.
Outside of Italy, Burgundy also has a rich truffle heritage. Its autumn truffles are in season from September until the New Year and are dark brown with intense aromas of earth and roasted hazelnut. Despite their name they are found outside of the Burgundy region too, in regional France, Italy and Croatia.
One factor that drives the popularity of truffles is their unique ability to transpose the aromas of the earth into edible form. All truffles release musky nuances that recall the beguiling experience of walking in the woods after the rain, but white truffles do so in an especially delicate and refined way.
Truffles in brief
Truffles are hypogeous fungi that grow
