Strangozzi al Tartufo Nero di Norcia
Norcia and Spoleto, Umbria
Umbria's most celebrated pasta pairing: strangozzi (the thick, rough-cut square-section pasta of Spoleto and Norcia) dressed with a sauce of fresh black truffle (Tuber melanosporum) shaved abundantly over a base of garlic, anchovy, and olive oil. The truffle must be grated on a mandoline directly over the hot pasta — not cooked into the sauce but added raw-warm over the heat of the pasta. The anchovy is not identifiable in the finished dish but provides the glutamate depth that amplifies the truffle's own umami.