My hus­band, David, recently took a busi­ness trip to Europe. I’ve always dreamed of going to Europe and I haven’t had the chance yet. As con­so­la­tion, David promised to bring me back a truf­fle from France. He vis­ited fam­ily friends in Paris who have a sec­ond home in the coun­try. At the farm, they have a tree that fre­quently har­bors black truf­fles buried in the dirt under­neath. They explained that this year had not a good year for find­ing truf­fles so they gave him truf­fles that they had canned in a pre­vi­ous year.

I wanted to make a sim­ple meal that would show­case but not over­whelm the truf­fle. So, I decided to make a sim­ple Car­bonara with lin­guine, peas, basil, pars­ley and an egg, white wine and parme­san sauce. We opened the lit­tle can and were sur­prised to find four tiny black truf­fles! They were round and spongy with a bumpy tex­ture. I was a lit­tle dis­ap­pointed that they were not as pun­gent as I expected. But maybe I am just used to white truf­fle oil that is usu­ally enhanced with gar­lic. Or maybe it was because the truf­fles were canned, not fresh. No mat­ter, a few shav­ings of truf­fle on the pasta was still a spe­cial treat.

I would love to go truf­fle hunt­ing some­day when I go to Europe. Have you been lucky enough to find your own truf­fle? Have you had a great dish in a restau­rant enhanced by truf­fles? Does the smell of fresh truf­fle blow your mind? I would love to hear about your truf­fle experiences.