So it took me a while but it’s one of those un-productive post-holiday days, so here’s a report on a great truffle dinner I shared with my girl a couple weeks ago at Oliveto in Oakland. Every year the restaurant sends a team of people to Italy during the truffle season, when they return they throw a series of truffle dinners. More info here:
http://www.oliveto.com/truffledinner2005.html
The menu was similar this year, here’s what we had:
Poached salted farm egg with Cardoons, celery, black trumpet mushrooms.
Tagliatelle with Herbs and Fonduta Valdostana.
Roasted Monkfish al tabaccaio with Leeks and Fresh-Milled polenta.
Spit-Roasted Paine Farm Pigeon with Drunken Sultana Raisins, Walnuts and Liver crostini.
Barolo, "La Rocca e La Pira" Roagna, Piedmont 1997.
I've had white truffle before but not in this quantity or quality, and not in this kind of focused experience. The aroma hit us over the head when we walked in. Just intoxicating. I stopped short at a large plate of truffles under a glass cake cover. Then I looked around and saw a few more plates like it and knew it was going to be a fun night.
The menu offered a la carte choices with optional white truffle shavings at $7/gram. The ordinary approach is for the server to shave truffle until you say "when." They weigh the truffle before and after and charge for what's missing. This makes it hard to estimate the cost, and although this was a splurge night it could easily get out of hand. Just after we got settled a woman next to us had a small amount shaved onto her pasta – like 2-3 swipes – and the server estimated it to be about 2 grams. I knew we wanted a lot more than that and gave in to the fact it would be an expensive experience (no surprise there).
Before we ordered our server brought us a plate with 4-5 truffles for us to smell and handle. They were firm and incredibly fragrant. Instead of playing the "say when" shaving game I picked one about the size of golf ball and asked her to weigh it. It came back at 20 grams. I said "We'll take it" figuring it would be easier to ration without busting the bank. This also meant our truffle spent the evening at the table with us, so we could really get to know one another. It was great fun to fondle and smell the truffle as we ordered and waited for our food. To me this was a lot better than having the truffles disappear after you got your shavings.
The poached egg was an incredibly luxurious dish, very rich and creamy, and combined with the mushrooms it was just a fantastic platform for the truffle. (Fonduta valdostana is a fontina-based sauce, not positive but I think it's a flour and butter deal like a bechamel or sauce mornay.)
I had very high hopes for the pasta – after all this is a restaurant that not only makes their own, they mill their own flour! The tagliatelle was everything I hoped for and more. Perfectly cooked, simply sauced. It was here that we used most of our truffle.
The spit-roasted pigeon was earthy, rustic elegance at its best, very much my kind of food. My girl was put off by the presentation, which included the legs and feet hanging off the plate, but I loved it. (I tried to wait until she was looking the other way before gnawing on the bones.) The breast was served rare, and it had just the right amount of smoke from the fire and natural gaminess. The pigeon liver crostini really brought out the "liveriness" in the meat. The plate was balanced by sweetness in the raisins and the additional crunch and nuttiness of the walnuts. We didn’t have a lot of truffle left at that point but what we had enhanced the woodsy flavors of everything.
At Oliveto special dinners mean special wine service, in this case a selection by the glass ranging from Gavi di Gavi to Barolo and Amarone. (And, as I recall, something like $14 - $30 per glass.) I very much enjoyed our wines, particularly the Barolo. However next time I will spend more money and attention on truffles, less on wine. There are other nights to focus on wine.
http://www.oliveto.com/truffledinner2005.html
The menu was similar this year, here’s what we had:
Poached salted farm egg with Cardoons, celery, black trumpet mushrooms.
Tagliatelle with Herbs and Fonduta Valdostana.
Roasted Monkfish al tabaccaio with Leeks and Fresh-Milled polenta.
Spit-Roasted Paine Farm Pigeon with Drunken Sultana Raisins, Walnuts and Liver crostini.
Barolo, "La Rocca e La Pira" Roagna, Piedmont 1997.
I've had white truffle before but not in this quantity or quality, and not in this kind of focused experience. The aroma hit us over the head when we walked in. Just intoxicating. I stopped short at a large plate of truffles under a glass cake cover. Then I looked around and saw a few more plates like it and knew it was going to be a fun night.
The menu offered a la carte choices with optional white truffle shavings at $7/gram. The ordinary approach is for the server to shave truffle until you say "when." They weigh the truffle before and after and charge for what's missing. This makes it hard to estimate the cost, and although this was a splurge night it could easily get out of hand. Just after we got settled a woman next to us had a small amount shaved onto her pasta – like 2-3 swipes – and the server estimated it to be about 2 grams. I knew we wanted a lot more than that and gave in to the fact it would be an expensive experience (no surprise there).
Before we ordered our server brought us a plate with 4-5 truffles for us to smell and handle. They were firm and incredibly fragrant. Instead of playing the "say when" shaving game I picked one about the size of golf ball and asked her to weigh it. It came back at 20 grams. I said "We'll take it" figuring it would be easier to ration without busting the bank. This also meant our truffle spent the evening at the table with us, so we could really get to know one another. It was great fun to fondle and smell the truffle as we ordered and waited for our food. To me this was a lot better than having the truffles disappear after you got your shavings.
The poached egg was an incredibly luxurious dish, very rich and creamy, and combined with the mushrooms it was just a fantastic platform for the truffle. (Fonduta valdostana is a fontina-based sauce, not positive but I think it's a flour and butter deal like a bechamel or sauce mornay.)
I had very high hopes for the pasta – after all this is a restaurant that not only makes their own, they mill their own flour! The tagliatelle was everything I hoped for and more. Perfectly cooked, simply sauced. It was here that we used most of our truffle.
The spit-roasted pigeon was earthy, rustic elegance at its best, very much my kind of food. My girl was put off by the presentation, which included the legs and feet hanging off the plate, but I loved it. (I tried to wait until she was looking the other way before gnawing on the bones.) The breast was served rare, and it had just the right amount of smoke from the fire and natural gaminess. The pigeon liver crostini really brought out the "liveriness" in the meat. The plate was balanced by sweetness in the raisins and the additional crunch and nuttiness of the walnuts. We didn’t have a lot of truffle left at that point but what we had enhanced the woodsy flavors of everything.
At Oliveto special dinners mean special wine service, in this case a selection by the glass ranging from Gavi di Gavi to Barolo and Amarone. (And, as I recall, something like $14 - $30 per glass.) I very much enjoyed our wines, particularly the Barolo. However next time I will spend more money and attention on truffles, less on wine. There are other nights to focus on wine.
