Starting with a Bang! Truffle blowout in Boston

Go big or go home. The best way to start the yumblog for real is with a recap of an extraordinary truffle dinner organized by my friend Nab. He'd been obsessing over truffles for months and had cooked up the idea to procure some tubers and ask Charles Draghi of Boston's Erbaluce restaurant to do something special with them. Chuck the magic dragon is from Piedmont, and is whipping up some of the most exciting and interesting Italian food in the city. Give him some white and black truffles and watch him go! Chuck also offered to do a wine and cocktail pairing and we gladly obliged.

We started with an antipasti of Taleggio Arancini with white truffles, a bruleed scallop with lemon and white truffle 'maionese', and a white truffle sour cocktail.

Arancini:

Scallops:


Cocktail:
The cocktail was fantastic -- like a truffle ramos fizz, and it cut through the creaminess of the taleggio and complemented the scallop. We were off to a good start!

Then it was on to the First course, which would turn out to be my favorite of the night. Organic duck egg sformato with white truffles, aged parmegiano regianno, and marjoram. Paired with ’09 Nera chiavennasca bianco “La Novella.” The sformata was like eating a truffle cloud, with the sharp cheese adding a little tang and the mostly overlooked herb marjoram a hint of green grassiness. OMG I could eat this all day long. I still think about it. It pervades my dreams. Okay, let me have a moment here. Okay. I'm back.



Second course was Veluttata of celeriac and parsnips with silver sage and white
truffles paired with M.V. Rainoldi brut rose. I love celeriac and parsnips and had never had them together, and this combination really sang to me. No, I didn't know what a veluttata is either but turns out it's a creamy soup. Whatever you call it, it's the yums. Delicate, creamy, dreamy.

The truffles seemed to get more intense as we moved through the evening, or maybe it was the wine talking, but this already seemed heady when it arrived at the table and went over the top when Chuck shaved truffles on top table side. He didn't hold back.

Veluttata:

Third course: Walnut and black truffle risotto with oregano with a ’04 Nera Grumello riserva. I hoped we'd see a risotto or a pasta at some point in the evening and this was divine. The walnuts were uber fresh, almost green tasting, and the only complaint was that it was a huge portion. I was getting nervous about my stomach capacity at this point, but did my best to eat it all up and not get the wrath of the nag. I confess I left some but not much. It was hard to stop eating.

Risotto:

But wait, there's more!

Fourth course of Faraona (Guinea Hen), roasted with black truffles, and a
black truffle- beet sauce. Paired with ’04 Rainoldi Sfursat “Fruttaio Ca’ Rizzieri” Now the black truffles really killed tucked under the skin of the guinea hen. With the beets, this was a perfect Autumn dish. All it needed was a sweater and a moustache to round it out.

Guinea Hen: (with apologies for the lighting)


And finally the Dolci: Marsala and black truffle zabaione with amaretti biscotti; Lemon and pear panna cotta with white truffles and white chocolate. Dessert has never been my bag, but put truffles in a zabaione and I'll try to suffer through it!

Dolci:
Zabaione:

Panna cotta:

And finally, to gild the lily, a little snackette of chocolate truffles, black grapes and roasted chestnuts. Ooof. Okay, mercy. Basta! ENOUGH!!!


The evening was delightful, just as I had hoped it would be. Chef and his team took such good care of us, and seemed to be enjoying it (almost) as much as we were. As we stumbled out into the Bermuda Triangle that is Bay Village, there were no sad faces. We were all in a truffle reverie, and it would last for days.