Nobody knows the truffles I’ve seen

I know, that’s a really bad title, but I couldn’t resist.

At the market yesterday I was really hoping to get some nice fresh ricotta but, she was all out by the time I got there.  Not surprising since I got there late and it’s the time of year when the cows aren’t producing that much milk.  So, no plain ricotta for me, but I was lucky enough to get some ricotta with truffle – made with black truffles from the region.

Here’s a picture of the truffle ricotta:

What to do with truffle ricotta?  Well, you can eat it fresh, of course, but it’s fantastic in pasta.  So, today I made tagliatelle con ricotta al tartuffo.  It’s easy to make, just cook up some tagliatelle (I cheated and used the boxed kind, but if you make it fresh, it’s even better.).  Once your tagliatelle is cooked, don’t strain it in a colander, but remove it from the pot with a spaghetti fork so that there’s still some pasta cooking water stuck to it.  Then, dump it in a bowl with your ricotta al tartuffo, a little olive oil and some salt to taste, and toss it up.  Once the ricotta hits the hot pasta, this wonderful aroma of cheese and truffle just fills the air.  Here’s a picture of the finished dish.  I wish I could take a smell-o-graph (instead of a photograh, get it?) so you could get the full effect, but we’ll have to settle for the picture.