How Do You Eat Black Truffle Slices

Slofoodgroup Team February 08, 2023

That unmistakable, luxurious black truffle flavor can be incorporated into dishes in a multitude of ways—using oils or salts, or grating it directly on top of your dish before serving. If you really want to pack a truffle punch into a bite, though, we encourage you to use slices. Whether you have fresh truffle, preserved whole truffle, or a preserved truffle carpaccio, incorporating them into appetizers, entrees, sides, or even snacks is incredibly simple. It’s choosing what to put them on that is the the most difficult part!

Ideas for Using Black Truffle Slices:

Shave fresh black truffle slices directly over dishes. 

Rice, potatoes, and pasta are common vessels for truffles due to the mild flavor they possess on their own. If you are lucky enough to have gotten your hands on some fresh black truffle, we highly recommend shaving them directly over dishes such as risotto, mashed potatoes, or pasta to experience the earthy potency of these underground fungi. 

By shaving them over top, rather than stirring them in during the cooking process, you are ensuring as little of the flavor and aroma as possible is able to escape prior to serving. Should you feel the need to incorporate them into the dish, however, we do recommend you do so toward the final phase of the cooking, as a fresh truffle should only be lightly cooked at most. 

Enliven preserved truffle by slicing them and adding fat.

Fresh black truffles are only available seasonally and, while fresh is best, preserved whole truffles are not far behind. Fat tends to bring out that distinctive truffle flavor, so rather than shaving the preserved version directly over a dish. There are a few ways to reinvigorate truffles using fat. The simplest method is shaving them into a small dish of warm olive oil and letting them sit for several minutes before adding them to a dish. Alternatively, many chefs will choose to sauté in oil or butter, before adding them to the very end of the cooking process.

Once you have brought that truffle flavor back to life, the options for how to use the slices are endless. 

• Stir them into a creamy pasta dish. 
• Toast fresh baguette and give it a schmear of goat cheese, a drizzle of honey, and a truffle slice. 
• Add a few slices atop a perfectly cooked steak.
• Make a simple rustic truffle pizza with a mild pesto, fresh cherry tomato slices, fromage blanc, black garlic, and slices of truffle that have been soaked in oil (this is one of our favorite simple weeknight recipes). 

Create simple dishes with massive flavor using preserved truffle carpaccio. 

Truffle carpaccio is one of the easiest ways to utilize truffle slices. The truffles come pre-sliced and the flavor has been preserved by soaking them in oil and storing them in a sealed glass jar. No extra preparation is needed to utilize this fantastic fungus when it is preserved in this manner. Simply take it directly out of the jar and incorporate it into any dish, with or without the oil. If you do choose to leave the oil behind, though, don’t toss it out. It is great for adding that wonderful truffle flavor to meats, seafoods, starches, and sauces. 

We love using our truffle carpaccio for putting together simple, yet flavorful appetizers that are sure to impress. Think, gougéres stuffed with a triple cream, prosciutto, and truffle slices; baked rounds of new potatoes with a drizzle of truffle oil, a truffle slice, and flake sea salt; seared salmon bites with truffle aioli and a truffle slice; or one of our absolute favorites, beef tartare with truffles and hollandaise sauce (this recipe uses white truffle carpaccio but it is wonderful with black truffle carpaccio as well). 

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