The truffles are in town | Pamela’s Food Service Diary - SILive.com

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Can you smell the truffles? Yes, the fungus is among us.

Black truffle. White truffle. What’s the difference?

Angelo Nicastro, co-owner of Bocelli, will tell you the black truffles are the nugget-looking things shaved over the Grasmere restaurant’s food. White truffles, he says, are a key component in the oil used to dress some of Bocelli’s dishes — more like a finish.

These Tuber magnatum hail from Italy, harvested from now through December by sows or dogs. Hard to describe, their taste might best be described as funky, almost garlicky — but not quite. It’s a sensation maybe more experienced by the nose than enjoyed on the palate as they are incredibly fragrant. Their smell? That’s just as strange, a perfume about as curiously dank as hot, wet feet in high-end leather shoes and simultaneously happy smelling like a butter-roasted mushroom. If tomatoes could be at the top of a flavor rainbow, truffles are at the way bottom.

Massimo Felici at VINUM (VinumNYC.com) is almost sold out of his first white truffle-touched dinner for Thursday, Oct. 22. The all-inclusive meal, his fall tradition, is $195 for five courses. More dinners are in the works and, if you’re lucky, the chef will shave the precious things over select dishes in his Stapleton restaurant.

Bocelli (OstgeriaBocelli.com) will see their truffles land on their linen cloth-covered tables come Friday. They’ll bob and weave around burrata, beef carpaccio, butternut squash-cauliflower soup and smoked salmon. They might grab your attention on prosciutto-wrapped chicken stuffed with Fontel cheese plus sweet vermouth, chestnut mushrooms and tagliatelle coated in truffle butter.

Prices on the menu with truffled items range from $14 (the soup) to $65, the latter number attached to pan-seared beef tenderloin with red wine reduction and black truffles coupled with a sweet pea-white truffle risotto.

Truffles can be pricey. They're a rare treat harvested in Italy in a short season which spans October through December. (Courtesy of VINUM)

One of the Thursday, Oct. 21 specials at Angelina’s Ristorante in Tottenville is a house-made pappardelle with black truffles from Piedmonte. The pasta will be cooked by a server in a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano.

For an everyday truffle fix, Angelina’s Ristorante (AngelinasRistorante.com) features truffle fries and the occasional umami ‘bamm!' from truffle salt for a dish finish. On the new Sunday “Bubbles and Brunch” menu patrons might see truffle oil drizzled over Carpaccio di Manzo, thin-sliced filet mignon, organic micro greens, crushed nuts and Trapani pink sea salt.

AND NOW . . .

. . . on the flip side of the decadent conversation, there is the stark reality of how tedious things have become in the economy, notably illustrated by Baskin' Robbins announcing its impending bow-out from the business scene.

Owner and chief ice cream scooper Susan Juan says the closure is happening as people are not spending money on ice cream, a luxurious thing for those unemployed or working fewer hours. Reading the beautiful notes on the wall from her customers and hearing her own loving words about her patrons which have become like family brought tears to us both. In a mask, it’s not easy to type story and cry at the same time.

Keep in touch.

Pamela Silvestri is Advance Food Editor. She can be reached at silvestri@siadvance.com.

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