Truffle Hunting in Montone

I have many pleasant memories of Italy. One of them was a visit to a farm in Montone, a walled medieval village tracing its roots back in the 10th century. It’s about 20 miles from the city of Perugia in central Italy.

Our travel guide said we’d go for truffle hunting. Pardon my ignorance, but it led me to assume that truffles were some kind of prey. I squirmed at the thought of seeing blood on my hands. Little did i know that they are actually wild mushrooms that grow underground where oak trees are found.

 

For the hunt, we accompanied Sergio, the farm owner, and Napo, his trusted dog. He let Napo run loose on the property sniffing for truffles. When Napo stopped on a spot and started scratching the surface, Sergio rewarded the dog with a piece of cheese and started digging.

 
And… voila! We got truffles! It was like striking gold. Black truffles cost around $300 to $600 a pound in the open market.

 
The host family served us home cooked meals for dinner complete with wine and truffles with crostini. It was an occasion where we experienced the real meaning of Italian hospitality. We were treated like one of their own.