Down on our hands and knees in the pouring rain, sniffing dirt and covered in mud, we embark on a digging expedition deep in the heart of south-western Western Australia in search of black gold growing in the soils around Manjimup.
With a kilogram of truffle worth between $3000 and $4000, it’s no surprise this fungus is a culinary delight. Its rarity and scarcity makes it the second most expensive food commodity in the world after the spice, saffron.
The season goes from late May to mid August and typical truffle hunting weather generally means it’s pouring with rain.
Truffle certainly isn’t very attractive. It has a rough diamond-shape surface and develops in an odd form.
These pungent, uniquely flavoured, gourmet mushrooms take more than five years to grow on the roots of hazelnut and oak trees infected with imported truffle spores from France.
They’re found anywhere from two to 30 centimetres under the ground which means a trained dog can smell one from 50 metres away.
On this truffle property there are 13,000 oak and hazelnut trees which means a 40 kilometre walk to complete one round of harvesting, normally covered in less than seven days.
It’s unbelievable to comprehend that in less than 10 years, the South West of the state could be home to the French Black truffle with expectations of becoming the world’s biggest producing region.
Almost 70 per cent of truffles produced on this farm alone are being exported to more than 14 countries.
Truffle linguine
Serves 4
There are so many ways to incorporate truffles into your cooking. Try this wonderful linguine recipe with its earthy flavour and intoxicating aroma of black truffle.
400 g ‘00’ pasta flour
4 free-range eggs
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
20 g fresh black truffle, sliced very finely
100 g parmesan cheese
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
chives
Place flour in a mound on a clean work surface. Make a well in the centre of the flour. Crack 4 eggs and oil into the centre of the well. Use a fork to whisk the eggs, gradually drawing in the flour as you go until the dough becomes thick.
Use your hands to bring the dough together. Knead for 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Shape the dough into a disc and coat lightly with flour. Wrap in plastic wrap and set aside for 30 minutes to rest.
Divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Use the palm of your hand to flatten the dough. Set the pasta machine on the widest setting and coat the pasta rollers lightly in flour. Feed one portion of dough through the machine. Repeat six more times, folding the pasta into thirds and then turning it 90 degrees to the pasta machine before you feed the pasta dough through each time.
Continue to feed the dough through the machine, gradually narrowing the pasta machine settings, one notch at a time. When you reach notch five, lay the pasta on the bench and on one half of the sheet place an eighth of the thinly sliced truffle. Fold the pasta over to sandwich the truffle inside the pasta then feed the dough through the machine again, gradually narrowing the pasta machine settings until you reach notch four, then repeat with the remaining three dough portions.
Set the pasta machine to the linguine setting and feed the pasta sheet through. Lightly coat the linguine with flour to stop it sticking together. Repeat with the remaining pasta sheets.
Cook the linguine in rapidly boiling salted water. Once it has risen to the surface of the water, cook it for 1 minute and it will be done. Toss cooked linguine with olive oil, three quarters of the parmesan, sea salt, pepper and chives.
To serve, place linguine in individual pasta bowls. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with the remaining parmesan. Garnish with the rest of the shaved black truffles.
Recipe courtesy of Iain Menzies