Name: Black Truffle Pasta review by hurkanakbiyik at Faros Holborn, London, United Kingdom
Item: Black Truffle Pasta
Rating: 4.4
Author: hurkanakbiyik

Italy

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.

Truffle aroma is fat-soluble and volatile, so the sauce is built to carry it and the truffle goes in as late as possible. The standard base is butter emulsified with starchy pasta water into a thin, glossy coating, sometimes with a little parmesan, sometimes with cream in richer versions. The pasta is usually a long fresh egg cut such as tagliolini or tajarin, whose porous surface holds the butter better than a dried extruded shape. Cooking truffle destroys most of what you paid for, so shavings belong on top of the finished plate, cut thin enough to be translucent. Some kitchens infuse the butter with truffle trimmings for an hour beforehand, which is a legitimate way to push the aroma into the sauce without heating the good slices.

Judge it on aroma first, before the fork moves: the smell should arrive as you lean over the plate and should read as earthy and mushroomy rather than sharp or petrol-like. That chemical top note is the tell for oil. Look at the shavings — real ones have a marbled white vein structure through a dark interior, and they should be cut to order rather than sitting pre-sliced. A plate that arrives with visible black flecks stirred through the sauce is usually truffle paste or carpaccio in preservative, which is a legitimate cheaper option but should be priced as one. The sauce itself should coat without pooling, and the parmesan should stay in the background, because too much of it buries the truffle entirely.

Black Truffle Pasta

United Kingdom

Faros Holborn

I had a chance to try this fresh and tasteful pasta from Faros in London.

Served hot and fresh. I liked the pasta itself and the way it has been cooked. The black truffle is matching perfectly with this pasta. It was also a nice touch for me to see the mushrooms as whole. Just go for it you would like it.

Black Truffle Pasta review by hurkanakbiyik at Faros Holborn, London, United Kingdom

Black Truffle Pasta

Faros Holborn

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