Funghi

Tuber borchii

A tier

Tuber borchii is the bianchetto or whitish truffle of Mediterranean Europe—small, pale to reddish-brown outside, with a garlic-forward aroma milder and shorter-lived than true white magnatum. It fruits in winter and early spring, is cultivable on several hosts, and supplies restaurants that want a white-truffle gesture without Alba prices. Quality is honest when labelled correctly; fraud begins when borchii is sold as magnatum. Shave over eggs and pasta in slightly larger amounts than Alba. The perfume is garlic-mushroom rather than honey-fermented complexity. Excellent in compound butter and for home cooks learning white-truffle service.