Ingredient Spotlight: Truffles

Ingredient Spotlight: Truffles

L’Aquila’s delicious and versatile products are created from carefully selected fresh Mediterranean produce. This spotlight serves to highlight the product L’Aquila is best known for.. truffles!
 
 
As one of the most expensive foods in the world, truffles (also known as ‘nature’s diamonds’) are steeped in history and renowned for their complex flavour and illusive nature. In the Middle Ages, they were reportedly banned by the church for alleged aphrodisiac qualities. Today, people across the world are still charmed by their culinary enigma, wanting in on the secret: what makes truffle so irresistible?
Grown beneath forest floors, our truffles are formed in partnership with deciduous trees like oak and hazel. Extended root networks concentrate nutrients from the trees’ base, so the nuggets can form slowly underground.
White truffle entices with deep garlic-y fragrance and a bouquet of unique umami, whilst black truffle varieties are stoic in their earthy nature, offering a musky aroma and almost hazelnut-like flavour. Once ripened to these qualities, like gemstones they are handpicked from the soil by our specialist hunters and carefully selected for processing.
With decades of specialism and refinement, we have captured these properties in our extensive range, the most popular including preserved whole, sliced and minced black summer truffle along with added-value ingredients such as Truffoil™ condiments, truffle sauces, Honey&Truffle, truffle salt and seasonings.
 
Preserved Black Summer Truffle
 
Among our range of black summer truffle are: whole brushed truffle, truffle slices and minced truffle, which offer the extravagance of an ‘actual’ truffle inclusion to recipes. We recommend using these in sauces, mayonnaise, gravy, fillings, with eggs, roasted vegetables, in meat and fish recipes or making truffle butter and cheeses.
Truffle omelette
 
 
Salsa Truffina™: Black Truffle and Champignon Mushroom Paste
As the demand for products with truffle inclusions has grown, the expensive nature of the ingredient has often proven problematic. We wanted to make truffle paste accessible to food manufacturers, and so our industry-renowned product 'Salsa Truffina™' was born.
We have combined black summer truffle with champignon mushroom and truffle flavouring, achieving a product with provenance at a lower price point. This ingredient can be used on pizza, in pasta fillings, bakery products, and is great in a vegetarian wellington!
 
 
Why not try:
Savoury cheese beignets with gruyere and truffle
 
The combination of umami-rich flavours offer a strong headline ingredient. Level up and dust the beignets with a little truffle pepper.
 
Truffle Powder
Another alternative pure truffle ingredient we offer is our truffle powder. Made from black or white truffle varieties, this powder packs in flavour and is suitable for use in dried recipes. Our customers love using this product as an added-value seasoning, especially in dried snack ranges such as:
 
Parmesan and black truffle cheese twists
 
Sweet potato truffle crisps
 
Truffle seasoned pork crackling
                                                                                                  
Crunchy shiitake mushrooms with black truffle
 
Truffle roasted chickpea and popcorn mix 
 
Popular snack products enhanced with luxury seasonings make especially marvellous additions to hampers and gifting ranges.
 
 
We have recently developed a new dried ‘truffle seasoning’ – powdered black summer truffle extended with rice powder and added flavouring. Contact us for further information.
Truffoil™ Condiments
Our Truffoil™ condiments were created to offer the opportunity to add truffle flavour to recipes without the cost of 'actual' truffle. There can be many variations in base oil, flavouring type, and concentration to meet the specifications of our customers. This can include extra virgin olive or sunflower oil with nature-identical or 'natural' flavouring.
The flavourings used in our products are unique blends perfected after many years of research. A few drops can be used in bread recipes, prepared vegetables such as mashed potato, countless ready-meal recipes like risotto or pasta, salad dressings, sauces, and more. An example would be:
 
Chopped artichoke, courgette and truffle stuffed cannelloni
 
Artichoke becomes creamy after roasting – delectable when laced with Truffoil™ condiment and a great vegan option.
 
 
Truffle Salt
Our blend of Italian sea salt and dried black summer truffle is ideal for enhancing flavour. Great pairings include root vegetables (especially truffle fries!), scrambled eggs, and roasted nuts. For something a bit different:
 
Truffle salt and cashew nut butter
 
Cashew butter has a much subtler flavour than classic peanut butter, allowing the added truffle aroma to shine through. It is nutty and salty, and can be sold as a condiment for crudités, sandwiches, or even eaten by the spoonful!
 
 
Honey&Truffle
Decadent and truly delicious, our Honey&Truffle is made with silky acacia honey, offering a strong savoury-sweet flavour. This product impresses with meat and cheese on a cold grazing platter. However, why not try topping a premium breakfast offering?
 
Toasted bread with whipped ricotta, figs, honey&truffle and thyme
 
Perfectly paired with a freshly brewed morning coffee.
 
 
Honey Truffle Duxelle
Finally, we would like to introduce our NEW Honey Truffle Duxelle – with soft flavours of sweet honey, balsamic vinegar, and earthy truffle. This product is ideal for antipasti, pastries, or used as a distinctive garnish. Perhaps try:
 
Wood-fired pizza with lightly smoked mozzarella, black truffle and spinach
 
Powerful ingredients for an exciting vegetarian or vegan offering.
  
 
If you are looking to include truffle in upcoming NPD, please do not hesitate to contact us should you like advice or suggestions on which products may best suit your recipe.
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