Piedmont
Ultra-thin egg pasta — almost as fine as a thread — dressed only with browned butter and shaved white truffle from Alba. The dish exists entirely to showcase the truffle; every other element is stripped to a minimum. The pasta must be made with a high yolk-to-whole-egg ratio for a rich golden colour and silky texture that complements the truffle without competing.
The truffle is everything: earthy, garlicky, faintly mushroomy and entirely unlike anything else; the butter and egg pasta provide fat and richness as a frame — this is not a pasta dish, it is a truffle experience
{"Use 4 egg yolks per 100g flour with just enough white to bind — the richness comes from the yolks, not from cream","Roll to the thinnest setting (setting 9 on a pasta machine) — taglierini should be 1–2mm wide","Brown the butter to hazelnut stage — pale butter lacks the nutty depth that carries the truffle","Truffle is shaved raw over the hot pasta at the table — never cook it, never add it to the sauce","Serve immediately on very warm plates — taglierini cool in seconds and the truffle aroma dissipates rapidly"}
{"Store the truffle in an airtight container with the eggs for 24 hours before making the pasta — the eggs absorb truffle aroma through the shell","Use a sharp truffle mandoline and shave directly over the plate at the table — theatrical but also practical","The only acceptable additions are a grind of white pepper and a very small amount of aged Parmigiano — nothing else"}
{"Adding truffle to the warm butter in the pan — cooking truffle destroys its volatile aromatics","Rolling the pasta too thick — the dish loses its delicacy and the thick pasta competes with the truffle","Using truffle oil as a substitute — it contains 2,4-dithiapentane (a synthetic compound) and tastes nothing like real truffle"}
La Cucina Piemontese — Tartufi, Vini e Tradizioni