Anyone for truffles??

Nine years ago when Michael and I were here and in Italy for a holiday we ate so much truffle we actually got sick of it...I know - hard to believe but we literally had truffle with our every meal; for breakfast we had truffle omelettes; for lunch we had truffle pizzas; and then for dinner we had truffle with whatever food we were eating! 

But it has been nine years since we've had this beautiful fungus fresh and as soon as we saw it, we were on! Arguably, the best truffles in France are found in Winter. Around Christmas time they are supposed to be "purrrfect", but we will have to settle for Summer truffles, oh well...let's see how we go... 

Following on from my last blog post, we were at the market in Gordes, when we came across the black fungus just sitting there waiting for us...it was so so ugly, yet so beautiful...

Yes, they may look like "balls of dirt" - according to Kayla, or "stones covered in sand" according to Kian, but these were little gems just waiting for the taking! At 1000 euros per kilo, needless to say we only bought a small amount, but that is all you need. (The 24g little jar pictured below was even too big for us, we bought a 10g truffe and that did the four of us just fine).

So, what were we going to do with it...we decided to make something that we thought would be a soft introduction to the flavour of truffle for the kids, and something that we had very fond memories of from our last trip, a truffle omelette. We'd also bought some beautiful fresh peas from the market that the kids were dying to shell so we added these to the omelettes too along with some prosciutto that we crisped up in the oven and some grated Comtè fromage.

With all of our ingredients ready, we told the kids they could make their own omelette up. If they didn't want to try the "ball of dirt" or "stone covered in sand" it didn't have to be cooked into their omelette, but we would just sprinkle a little on the edge so they could taste it, if they liked it, they could use more. They both decided to put a little bit in their omelettes, just to one side of it...just in case....

Well, what was the outcome?

Everyone loved it, and the remainder of the truffle that we had grated got sprinkled over the tops of the cooked omelettes by all of us! 

10g of truffle later, our passion for truffles had been passed down to our kids - mission accomplished!

Now we look forward to heading back to Provence at the end of July for a truffle hunt that we have booked in for and to meet a truffle farmer - a friend of our lovely neighbours that we met in Pernes-les-Fontaine - although they have told us we really need to be here at Christmas time to experience the BEST a truffle can offer...maybe we will have to extend our holiday...although, I don't think our budget is going to allow for that...may mean another trip during the Winter time...

Till next time... 

Bon appétit!!

Kim  xo