Truffle tartufata is a preserve of mushrooms and fresh truffles in oil. It's essentially a way for truffle producers to stretch the truffle harvest and use B-grade truffles scraps, and other by-products of the truffle harvest. Like sliced truffles in oil, many of the commercial products are a waste of money as they've been heat-sterilized. Today I'll show you how to make your own at home, and what to do with it.
What is Tartufata Sauce?
Tartufata or tartufata sauce is basically minced or coarsley pureed mushrooms mixed with a small amount of fresh truffle (typically summer truffle) preserved in oil or truffle oil. It's less of a sauce, and more along the lines of a mushroom and truffle pesto (just without cheese). Some producers include garlic. It's a traditional Italian way to preserve fresh black truffles or white truffles and stretch their flavor.
While it was likely a common truffle preserve, the small $30 jars of it you might see at a specialty grocer typically aren't anything to write home about, for a few reasons. First, at least on a commercial scale, tartufata is typically a truffle by-product with a miniscule amount of actual truffle in it. Labels will proclaim the jar includes something like 3-5% truffles.
Most importantly, if you look on the ingredients list, you'll often see truffle flavoring as well, which basically means detestable, synthetic truffle oil. For all intents and purposes, those jars of fancy sounding mushroom truffle paste are essentially just button mushrooms blended with a little truffle oil.
How to Make Tartufata Truffle Sauce
The mix of finely chopped mushrooms will be familiar if you've ever made mushroom duxelles before, but it differs in that it contains more oil, as well as salt. The first step is to cut mushrooms into bite sized pieces and toss them with oil and salt. If you want you can add a handful of fresh thyme sprigs.
Preheat the oven, put the mushrooms in a wide baking pan or cast iron skillet and bake until lightly browned and the water has evaporated. Then add a drizzle of oil and a small amount of mixed garlic and thyme to the pan and cook a minute more.
Allow the mushroom mixture to cool completely, then pulse in a food processor, drizzling in a few tablespoons of the oil until you get a coarse, spreadable mixture. Add the remaining oil and some chopped fresh truffle.
Pack the mixture into a jar and cover with extra oil, then refrigerate. From here the tartufata can be stored for a week or two or it can be frozen.
After a day or two in the fridge the truffle aroma and flavor will permeate the mushroom mixture and it's ready to use.
How To Cook With Tartufata
Even though it's often described as a sauce, it's more useful to think of tartufata as a sort of mushroom spread or pesto. That said, it can become a sauce, but you need to keep in mind it should not be cooked as it will weaken the truffle aroma-unlike commercial truffle oil.
After the first bite it might be difficult to not eat the entire jar with crackers-and there's nothing wrong with that. For an easy appetizer, put a small jar or a few spoonfuls out in a bowl with a cheese or charcuterie plate to serve with crackers.
It's also delicious spread on toasted bread rubbed with garlic, especially if you have a few truffle carpaccio slices in oil to garnish it with.
If you want to incorporate it into a meal it makes a good, simple dressing for pasta. This is rich stuff, and a little goes a long way. Two serve to people, in a hot pan with the heat turned off, toss 3 oz dried, cooked angel hair or spaghetti with ⅓ cup tartufata and a splash of pasta water. Add some parmesan cheese and fresh grated truffle on top, maybe with a few sliced chives, and serve.
You can also stir some into a truffle risotto at the end of cooking, or simply put a room temperature spoonful on top.
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Salsa Tartufata (Mushroom Truffle Sauce)
Equipment
- 1 Baking sheet or 12 inch cast iron skillet
- 1 Spatula
- 1 Chef knife
- 1 Pint mason jar or two half pints
Ingredients
- 1 lb Mixed mushrooms like cremini, portobello, oyster or shiitake, or wild mushrooms
- 1 Small clove garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- Fresh ground black pepper to taste
- ½ cup Plus two tablespoons grapeseed or sunflower oil *see note
- 10-15 grams Fresh black truffle or 5 grams alba white truffle
- 2 Teaspoons Chopped fresh thyme leaves optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F.
- Cut the mushrooms into bite-sized pieces, toss with the oil and salt and lay out on a baking sheet or large (12 inch) cast iron skillet.
- Roast the mushrooms for 25 minutes, then push the mushrooms to the side of the pan to reveal a cooking surface, add the garlic, and bake for 2 minutes more.
- Remove the pan to cool completely.
- Transfer the cooled mushrooms to a food processor and blend to a coarse, spreadable paste, pulsing and drizzling in about 2 tablespoons of the oil.
- Transfer the mushroom spread to a bowl, add the rest of the oil and the chopped truffle and season to taste with salt (I usually add an extra ¼ teaspoon). It should be well-seasoned with salt.
- Pack the tartufata into 1 pint jar or two half pint jars, pressing the mushrooms down to remove air pockets.
- Top the jars off with ¼ inch of additional oil to completely cover the mushrooms. Screw on a lid and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks. The mixture can also be frozen.
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