Truffle hunting in Millesimo and eating truffles in Osteria il Castello
After the great morning in Finale Ligure where we picked up olives and tasted home-made products in Sacone house, we transferred to Millesimo town for our night special plan – truffle hunting.
You will maybe laugh but I had never seen truffles in my life before so I had no idea what it was to do truffle hunting and why it was even called hunting. I like nice surprises so I did not even look it up to get a real experience.
The sun was settling down when we got to Millesimo, put on a few layers of clothes to protect against the breeze and together with our local professional truffle hunters we headed up to the woods. Every hunter has his own dog who is trained to hunt truffles following its strong smell.
Truffle (called tartufo in Italian) is a mushroom living under the surface, usually close to trees. Black and white truffles are among the hundreds of truffle species and exactly the 2 species we were able to hunt in Millesimo.
Truffles can be found only in certain areas around the world, with the biggest concentration of them in France, Spain and Northern Italy and then sold to other countries. Being so rare, the truffle price is high and depends on the period of the year. We were told it can easily go up to around 400 Euro per 100 grams! And the biggest truffle pieces ever found with each of them weighing around 1 kg were sold for thousands of euros (6 figures!!!) in Macau and Hong Kong.
one of our truffle hunters
Walking through the forest we watched the hunting dogs smell the ground and then dig out a truffle with front paws from the soil. The thing is to get the truffle from the dog asap and give him food instead after having found each truffle so he doesn’t eat it himself. The dogs have to be trained well to give the found truffles to their owners. But it is impossible to train boars living in the forest as they are one of the biggest enemies of truffles and would love to have them all to themselves.
found truffles
smelling a white truffle
bloggers during truffle hunting
Once we found some white and also black truffles, we were ready to go to Osteria il Castello restaurant to taste truffle dinner.
The Osteria il Castello dates back to 1906 and it’s a great place for big family dinners. Designed to fit the surrounding woods (with a sort of personal museum inside), offers tasty local meals, wine and alcohol. Vodka and liquors (6 flavours: mint, liquorice, lemon, juniper, fennel and chamomile) are made here in the Origine Laboratorio Liquori Valbormida by Alessandro Pancini since 2009 together with the Origine vodka being the first Italian vodka that has organic agricultural certification (= ”organic vodka”). And guys could taste all of them.
bloggers watching truffle cooking
cleaning up the black truffles
a clean black truffle
We also got to the kitchen to watch how to clean up the truffles from the soil and make polenta with cheese sauce and truffles on top. I could never imagine I would love such a ”rural” meal so much. The taste was incredible and the three ingredients completed each other ridiculously well!
polenta with cheese and truffles in Osteria il Castello
And here I was with the first truffle meal ever! And as well the second one, as we were served a truffle dessert (goat cheese dessert with truffles on top) afterwards! Now I know why truffles are so expensive, their taste is also unbelievable!
dessert with truffles
We even got a truffle ID with the details about truffles which looks like Italian ID!
a truffle ID
Check out the video I made from that night:
Truffle hunting in Millesimo and delicious dinner in Osteria Il Castello was part of a press trip organized by Agenzia Regionale per la promozione turistica ”in Liguria”. As usual, all the thoughts in the article are of my own. Many thanks for this unforgettable experience!
Jessica
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i love truffles and appreciate you posting about the hardship man and dog go through to find these truffles. But that dog is under fed and if he’s bringing in money for his owner that dog should be the healthiest happiest dog in the world. I think this truffle hunter should treat his dog better as he makes a living off of him and all the dog rely’s on him for is to fed properly.
Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler
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I agree Jessica, the dogs should be treated properly, not just these truffle hunting dogs, but all in general. I am vegan also because of supporting animals rights ;)
Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler
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Comment@ Alberto:
Thanks for your tips, Alberto! People usually have no idea that both piglets and dogs do truffle hunting.
Alberto
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Comment@ Katie (@wandertooth):
Out of curiosity truffles aren’t hunt only by dog! Until the WWII, were used not only dogs but also piglets. Now dogs practically are the only used in Italy, but in France the piglets are still used.
P.S. side note. Truffle in Italy can be found not only in north, (is true that here you can find the most famous and prized); but also in Tuscany, Molise and Umbria. Norcia (Umbria), is an area famous for black truffle and every year there is held an exhibition; this year was the 50th. Search for: neronorcia in Google and you get the website, there is a video “la sagra ai suoi esordi” you can see the first edition in 1953 and a part were you can see a piglet at work!
Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler
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Comment@ Katie (@wandertooth):
It feels good to know I was not the only one who didn’t know it :)
Katie (@wandertooth)
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Wow! I had no idea truffles were hunted by dogs! They are seriously delicious, and that combined with their scarcity and the method of collecting them makes sense now. Sounds like a fun experience!
Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler
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Comment@ Bjorn Karlman:
Sure, Bjorn!
Bjorn Karlman
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Thanks! Feels good to be back:). Maybe I’ll pick your brain on Buenos Aires soon:)
Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler
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Comment@ Sean:
I had no idea how truffles tasted before that night of hunting them. Now your comment reminded me of their perfect taste!
Crazy sexy fun traveler
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Comment@ Bjorn Karlman:
Ah, Bjorn, didn’t hear from you for ages! Happy you made it to BKK and nice choice of the cities. Only been to Buenos Aires and BKK.
Sean
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I love this post! Truffle hunting is always something I wanted to do! It’s like hunting for culinary gold. I’m always amazed that the dogs are so ell trained and able to smell those truffles buried under the soil. And let’s be honest, who doesn’t enjoy eating truffles! Looks like you had a great time! Looking forward to other adventures!
Bjorn Karlman
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Nice post, Alex! I just ate breakfast and you have already made me hungry:). I’m in Bangkok for three months and am traveling the world for a year with my wife. We will be living here, Buenos Aires, Berlin and Mumbai. Have any good tips for any of those cities?
Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler
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Comment@ The Guy:
Haha I am jealous of myself on that night too as I miss truffle meals now!
The Guy
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I’d often been curious as to why truffles are so expensive. You explain it well and I’m jealous that you were treated to so many truffle treats.