Oops! I mean truffle festival. Briefly misspoke, there.
It's white truffle time! Tuber Magnatum Pico, to be exact, but tartufo bianco to the Italians. It's the time of year for half of Tuscany, and almost all of the Piedmont, to turn into little else than middle-men for truffles, getting them from the ground to your face.
Not only that, but the time is NOW for vini nuovi and olii nuovi - the first, newly fermented wines from the grapes picked two months ago, the second from olives picked, oh, maybe last week.
San Miniato is a small town between here and Pisa that for a couple of weeks once a year turns into truffle capital, Italy. The town itself barely merits a paragraph in our guidebooks, but it is lovely and worth a visit. The three of us (Auntie included!) took the train there last Sunday on the advice of the student affairs coordinator in Husbear's school.
It was a bit of a pain in the ass figuring out how to get from the train station to San Miniato Alto. I got told off in Italian by an angry taxi driver, who I rousted from lunch with his family before I discovered that there was a shuttle bus to the piazza just under the town.
This is what we saw immediately upon arrival. The same crafts booths that are normally all over Florence, though there was a nice addition of some sort of steamed anise cookie machine. Figuring "this can't be all" we walked up a hill into the town.
The view was typical Tuscan autumn hill town lovely. I can't believe I can describe this as "typical."
When we made it up to the top of the town, we discovered that in fact the ENTIRE TOWN was in on the festival - like when we went to Boccaccesca, but San Miniato's a lot bigger than Certaldo! There were also booths from other Slow Food towns in Italy - we were happy to see Positano represented, along with many others.
We found some sort of little outdoor food court with a menu composed almost entirely of truffles, and just beyond a giant tent. Filled with truffles. You wouldn't believe the smell. I think my sweater still reeks of truffles, which is better than the diesel it usually smells like in town.
The tent was also home to vino and olio, too, so the truffles don't get lonely.
But the thing that had brought these people out in what, judging from their winter coats, was the FRIGID WINTER was really the truffles. (Actually, the temperature hit 70 that day. I have yet to figure out why the Italians bundle up so much. Maybe November = show off new winter clothes, even if it's hot out?)
The more striking specimens were laid out almost like jewelry. Would you wear this on a chain?
Huge piles of truffles were everywhere, just sitting out. We looked at them reverently, but soon became a little blasé about the whole thing. Hard not to, when they're everywhere!
The prices brought us back down to life, though. Yes, they're quite a bit lower than they are at home. No, that doesn't mean they're cheap. The numbers on the bags under these specimens are their prices. In euros, not Egyptian pounds.
This is the place Husbear bought his truffles for home-cooking.
Many of the people selling truffles also had products made with truffles, from the ubiquitous truffle oil or jarred truffles through truffled butter, truffle jam, and truffle liquor. The truffled sausages and truffled chocolate turned out to be housed elsewhere.
Husbear tried this truffled grappa, but decided that if the label hadn't said "tartufo" he would never have guessed they were included.
We did leave the tent, stinking of truffles, after a little while. After all, there was a whole town full of booths waiting for us!
We didn't make it very far, though, before finding a wine-tasting tent. Since she's not a drinker, Auntie took some pictures while we disappeared into the tent for a moment.
The sommeliers serving in this tent actually had those silver bowls on long necklaces! The tent got jammed quickly.
Ha! You got spotted, Husbear! That giant camera really isn't good for stealth.
There was a very pretty overlook right outside of the wine tasting tent, so we escaped the crowds to stand there. That tent seemed crowded at the time, but it was nothing compared to what we'd see later!
You could see the crowds starting to gather below, as more and more booths and shops opened giving out tastes of this and that.
This was the highest part of the town, so we walked down some stairs to the booths we saw just below. That was where we found sausages, of the truffled and untruffled variety. This butcher (macellaio) was hacking chunks off of that enormous soppresata you see wrapped under his hand. It looked good (flavored with citrus, according to him) but we didn't buy any. Oops - that would have been good snacking for the ride to Switzerland tomorrow!
What we did end up buying was chocolates from this local guy. He had chocolate cell phones and a giant chocolate tower, made to look like the one topping San Miniato. I was admiring his chocolates, the most interesting of which were stuffed with truffles or olive oil. Really good - the truffles actually tasted like truffle, and the olive oil is a smooth creamy inside that is just like concentrated olive oil!
Unfortunately, only this blurry picture. I'll have to get a picture or two of the chocolates before we eat them. The diamante are filled with truffle, while the ones below are the olive oil variety.
At this point, Auntie elected to hang out and people-watch near the chocolate and sausages while we walked down a little ways into town to scope out the scene.
We found piquant wine-soaked goat cheese from a town outside of Rome, which we bought, and ceramic plates, and olive oil and vegetables, everything brought in from all over Italy. The spread was amazing.
But, well, it was getting on towards dinner, so we returned to collect Auntie and to check out the open-air food court back at the top of the hill. Husbear and I split up to attack two different booths and purchase dinner. The procedure was straightforward - order, get a number, when that number's called, some portion of your order is ready. My number had to be called four separate times, since I overordered a bit on the food.
I found necci for the table, those chestnut-flour pancakes. Earlier in the day, they were available stuffed with lardo, that delicious cured pig fat, but those were gone and I had to make do with ricotta.
It was delicious, even though it wasn't stuffed with truffles.
The first thing ready from Husbear's order was fried egg with truffle. Egg and truffle are a classic combo, and when you add Auntie, WELL.
At that point, the food started coming fast and heavy. Pizza bianca con tartufi, a big oily dough circle topped with truffles. Tagliolini con tartufi - that truffled pasta you see on the table. Under the plate of eggs is a serving of fried fried fried polenta topped with a truffle sauce, while Auntie's holding fried flatbread with truffle sausage.
Not the most balanced meal, but here you have it:
Topped off with a nice plastic cup of vin brûlée (which turned out to be warm mulled wine), we had no complaints.
When we finished eating, we realized we had just enough time to catch the shuttle bus back to the train station to catch the 7:44 Florence train. So, goodbye to San Miniato!
We got on the bus we had been told was going to the station... only to find out at the bottom of the hill that it didn't. So, we walked probably a mile or more down a deserted suburban street towards the train station. We did end up being in plenty of time for the train, so all's well that ends well, right?
Tomorrow we're going to Switzerland! It will be our first time there, so we're pretty excited. We'll be staying in Interlaken. Hopefully, lots of pretty pictures from that, sometime next week after our return!
girlie
It must be wonderful to be able to just get up and go. Congrats to you... I spent time in Italy 2 years ago and the food is unbelievable. I can see now that Truffle time is my next choice, thanks again
Posted by: Maggie | Tuesday, 24 November 2009 at 14:21
Thank you, Maggie. It was a wonderful treat. I'm so glad we blogged it at the time so I can go back and look at the posts.
Fall is a wonderful time to visit - there are so many harvest festivals taking place all over the country!
Rachel
Posted by: Boots in the Oven | Tuesday, 24 November 2009 at 15:54