ALL ABOUT TRUFFLES FROM LE MARCHE ITALY
Truffles are, weight for weight, one of the most expensive foods on the planet. Luckily, however, a little goes a long way and in the Marche you can indulge in them without pawning the family silver. Of some sixteen species of tartufi found in the Marche, only two are worth killing for - the tartufo bianco or white truffle (Tuber magnatum Pico) and the tartufo nero pregiato or black truffle (Tuber melanosporum Vitt.). The white is the finest - and the costliest; tartufi bianchi can cost well over £1,500 a kilo depending on quality and seasonal abundance. The black version comes at a more modest price. Both are a perfect antidote to the hard Marche winter as to buy them fresh you have to be here between October and the end of December for the bianchi and between December and March for the neri pregiati. In summer any fresh truffles to be found on restaurant menus will be the tartufo d'estate or summer truffle (Tuber aestivum Vitt.), a pale shadow of its noble sisters - if these are your only experience of truffles, you may wonder what all the fuss is about. Italian truffle hunters dig up around 100 metric tonnes of truffles a year with the help of their '57 variety' dogs. In the Marches, Acqualagna, Sant'Agata Feltria and Sant'Angelo in Vado are the places to head for during the truffle season. See the entry for Sant'Angelo in Vado for details of truffle cultivation. Although truffles are best eaten fresh within days of their discovery, there are plenty of products that try to preserve the experience. Best value are the small bottles of olive oil flavoured with truffles. Other good buys are truffle butter and tubes of truffle paste. The whole truffles preserved in glass jars are expensive and have had most of the stuffing knocked out of them in the process of conservation. Perhaps the oddest product are the chocolate "truffles" flavoured with real black truffle - bizarre put surprisingly good (they actually come from Norcia in neighbouring Umbria). To be avoided, unless you have a very perverse palate, are the liqueurs with a lump of truffle bobbing about inside the bottle.
www.le-marche.com
BLACK TRUFFLES FROM SIBILINI MOUNTAINS-MARCHE
Foto di serafino Fioravanti
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EATING IN THE MARCHE
Wine alone could provide an excellent motive for touring in the Marche and winemaking in the area has been having its own little renaissance over the last ten years or so, with a move away from quantity towards quality. From producing rough plonk for the masses, the region now boast some outstanding vini da meditazione, wines so good they should be drunk with religious respect. These top class wines are not cheap and often cost much the same whether bought here or back home. But as well as the fashionable labels, you can drink excellent wines at excellently low prices. Joy, anyway, is not only to be found in the restrained sipping of august bottled vintages, but also in the enthusiastic quaffing of young, local wines. These still-living brews are liable to dramatic alteration at the mere changing of the moon and are barely able to withstand the journey from cellar to table (let alone a long trip north), yet often delight by their incisive personality and honest price. Often - but not always - you will not go far wrong simply sticking to the vino della casa. Wine Choices Whites: The Marche's pride is Verdicchio made from the local grape with the same name. This green-tinged wine with a distinctive bitter finish goes well with the region's Adriatic fish. Like Soave, it is among Italy's best-known dry whites, and it has come a long way since the commercially successful but mediocre Verdicchio of twenty odd years ago. The two DOC (the official Italian equivalent of the French Appellation Contrôllée) versions are - Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi and Verdicchio di Matelica. The other Marche DOC whites are Bianchello del Metauro and Colli Pesaresi Bianco from the north, Esino Bianco and Colli Maceratesi Bianco from the central Marche, and Falerio from the south. If you want more on Verdicchio take a look at this well-made Verdicchio wine site Reds: While the Marche is known world-wide for its white wine, the region also makes some outstanding reds. Around the Conero peninsula, Rosso Conero , made from the Montepulciano grape, is a rich, perfumed wine that often reaches greatness - from 2006 it will be able to boast the coveted DOCG description on its label. Rosso Piceno, and the even better Rosso Piceno Superiore from the south, blend Montepulciano and Sangiovese grapes. A red sparkling oddity is Vernaccia di Serrapetrona, normally a sweet dessert wine but also available in a drier secco version; this is Le Marche's other DOCG wine. Other Marche DOC reds are Sangiovese dei Colli Pesaresi around Pesaro, Esino Rosso and the delicious intensely-scented Lacrima di Morro d'Alba, both from the central Marche, and Colli Maceratesi Rosso from around Macerata.