I make a lot of pasta and I have a lot of pasta gadgets. Regardless, my favorite pasta to eat is pappardelle. Big, fat, homemade and hand cut, wide noodles that serve as the perfect platform for sauce. This recipe combines two cultures from dissimilar geographies that come together to create something magical.

I was blessed to be a part of a wonderful experience in Perigord, France where we hunted for truffles with dogs. Arranged by my sister, this home town of the Neanderthals is best know today for winter black truffles. The collie dogs would sniff around a stunted tree until they would paw the ground indicating a subterranean fungus. The couple who owned the property has been farming and hunting for truffles for generations.

Perigord black truffles have an amazing aroma of earth, fresh nuts, and garlic and taste the same with the addition of forest mushrooms. They are substantial enough to marry well with a light white wine cream sauce as presented here. If possible, get winter black truffles – they have almost all the flavor and aroma compared with those from their cheaper summer siblings.

Making a white wine cream sauce is simple but it can be expanded with flavor by incorporating great cheese. The Veldhuizen family has only been making artisan raw milk cheese since 2000 on a farm just outside of Dublin, Texas. I particularly like this Wooly Texas Sheep Cheese in this recipe but any mild medium flavored cheese would work including the easy to find asiago.

1 lb prepared pappardelle pasta with 1 cup reserved pasta water

2 tbs butter, preferably European style

2 tbs minced garlic

½ cups dry white wine

1 cup chicken stock

1 cup heavy cream, although half and half will work and make the sauce lighter

1/4 to 1/2 cups Wooly Texas Sheep Cheese (see note), grated

1 Perigord black truffle, approximately 1/2 tsp finely grated. Reserve the remainder for shaving at service.

Prepare your pappardelle pasta according to the package instructions, or use fresh pasta.

Melt the butter and sauté the garlic until just fragrant. Introduce the white wine and reduce by half. Then add the chicken stock and cream and heat until bubbly before adding half the cheese. Add the cooked pasta and approximately 1/3 cup of the reserved pasta water. Stir the pasta to coat with sauce and to gently reheat. Add the remaining cheese and grated truffle and include more pasta water if the sauce appears to thick.

Serve the pasta immediately and shave generous portions of black truffle over the top.

#pasta #truffles #sauce