An unbelievably generous friend gave us a small white truffle for Christmas. This is the kind of friend that one can never thank enough... and one you're grateful to have in your life...
I don't know what it would be like to live in a world where truffles are a frequent thing... and I'm not sure I want to. When something is this rare... this special... cooking becomes even more of an occasion!
And when one is in possession of something so perfect... what to do?
To me, there are really only 3 possibilities:
Softly scrambled eggs (once, while working at Food & Wine magazine, an editor asked me to do the honors and make my 20-minute slowly scrambled eggs. A jar containing a dozen eggs and A Perfect Black Truffle had been sent to her... OMG!)...
Very plain risotto...
Or fresh pasta dressed only with cream and Parmigiano... and over the top (in ALL ways!) a snowfall of paper-thin shavings of truffle. It makes me shiver just to write it!
So... which way did we go?
Risotto! Very, very plain: just shallots, great chicken stock, EVOO and a final enrichment with unsalted butter and Parm... and the aforementioned snowfall...
Perfect... hedonistic... celebratory... haunting...
If you do it only once in your life... DO IT! You will never regret it.