Black Truffle Pasta

Black truffle pasta is a category rather than a fixed recipe, and the single question that decides whether it is worth ordering is which truffle went into it. Tuber melanosporum, the winter black truffle from Périgord, Norcia and Spoleto, runs from December to March and carries a deep, slightly fermented aroma. Tuber aestivum, the summer truffle, is cheaper, paler inside and considerably milder, and it is what most kitchens are shaving when the menu says nothing more specific than black truffle. Neither is the same thing as truffle oil, which is usually a neutral oil dosed with synthetic 2,4-dithiapentane. That compound is one note out of the hundreds in a real truffle, which is why oil-based versions smell aggressive at the table and taste flat after three forkfuls.