White truffle - Tartufo bianco - Alba Truffle

White truffle is harvested and sold from 1 October to 31 December. Each region in Italy where this precious product grows has its own white truffle season, ensuring that it is always harvested at its very peak, when the flesh is firm, the truffle has strong smell and has reached a sufficiently large size.

The prized white truffle grows wild at any altitude.

It favors slightly chalky ground, characterized by wet springs and summers, and grows particularly well in airy spots, fed by rivers and watercourses, from which it draws many of the nutritional substances that contribute to the unique aromatic flavor that makes it so popular with chefs from the world's top restaurants.

The addition of white truffle makes a dish very special thanks to its unmistakable aroma.

It is best enjoyed with pasta, eggs, cheese, pizza and rice dishes and its flavor is enhanced by simplicity.

The white Alba truffle grows wild only in some regions of Italy and in Istria. This truffle is very rare and efforts to cultivate them have failed. So, white truffles are the most expensive truffles in the world and depending on the harvest they can go up to 4000 U$ a kilo and more. Their season is very short, from late September to late November, according to region.

White truffles vary in size from a walnut to a fist. They have a smooth surface, lightly velvety, pale ochre to dark cream or greenish. Its flesh or “gleba” is darker, reddish-brown, with a tenuous white veining. It is a very delicate truffle and it spoils in a few days. Its aroma, a mixture of methane gas and garlic, is very volatile and therefore, delicate white truffles are best when not cooked at all, but shaved raw over your favorite dish. The World white truffle of Alba auction is held every year in the castle of Grinzane Cavour. Truffles reach record price in this auction, well above their real price.

Highly prized and virtually impossible to find, the natural element with the richest fragrance, the white truffle of Alba or the Tuber Magnatum Pico is considered the diamond of the table, the most precious gem, which originates from the depths of the earth and marks a unique event each time we indulge.

Like a diamond, it is difficult to find, with an irregular shape and size, a smooth and slightly velvety surface, a color that varies from light ochre to dark cream up to grayish-yellow with a complex and intense fragrance, white truffles are different from all other varieties. Harvested from September to December, it requires special conditions in order to grow, such as soil that is soft and moist throughout the year, rich with calcium and well ventilated.

White truffle (Tuber Magnatum Pico), also known as the white Italian truffle or Alba truffle, is characterized by its golden skin, sometimes tending to ochre, and it's highly irregular, slightly flattened shape. This is undoubtedly the most sought-after of all truffle varieties, not just because of its marked and characteristic flavor, but also because it is a wild truffle that cannot be cultivated.

The internal color of the flesh (the technical term is 'gleba') takes on a marble-like tone that ranges from pale yellow to red or hazel, varying according to the trees beneath which the truffles grow. In fact, truffles get their nutrition from the trees and exploit the life cycle of the plants, particularly the roots, to extract the substances they need.