Truffle Hunt

Today was market day in Monforte d'Alba and we all walked down together into the village for a bit of shopping and breakfast at a cafe/bar in the market square.  

Oscar and the 3 girls then had a lovely long walk around the village, into the exquisite church, discovering the former elementary school that is now a sophisticated art gallery and the old, 15th century church and bell tower on top of the village that are now locked up, the new amphitheatre that is used for jazz concerts and the magnificent views while the 3 older boys took the bulging bags of fabulous produce back up to our cottages.

Then a bit of a lazy day catching up on a bit of reading and laundry (I prepared for tonight's dinner) before "afternoon tea" on our verandah of warm pumpkin salad with gorgonzola, grissini, dried figs, olives, parmigiano reggiono - all fabulous - and then setting off for the village of Barolo to meet our landlady at her house.  

We followed her to her husband's family vineyard nearby and were welcomed by her sister-in-law and 3 gorgeous little dogs before walking to the edge of the vineyard to meet our landlady's husband, his 13 year-old nephew and 2 bigger dogs who are both truffle hunters - the old master named Dick and his sister Jana who is still in training.  All 5 dogs get on so well together, and all of them are very people oriented and obviously very loved and very spoiled.

Then off we went, into the forest with bottles of water and the walking poles (we definitely needed them on the slippery slopes) provided by our hosts in search of wild truffles.  And within 15 minutes, Dick went crazy - digging with all of his might with his sister trying to join in - it was so fabulous to see - and our host trying to stop them both by giving them lots of treats so that they wouldn't eat the truffle.  Anyway, there it was, about the size of a walnut and we could smell it from 3 metres away before it had been unearthed.  And on we went - finding another 6 or so truffles - one of which was eaten by Jana before our host could get to it.  It was so wonderful to witness - and the dogs are so funny to watch. The little dogs tried to join in too - just so that they could partake in the treats!

Then back to the huge house at the vineyard where we met more members of the 2 families, and a casual bit of wine tasting - and completely unexpectedly, huge quantities of food that the 2 ladies had prepared - cheese, bread, frittata, risotto, apple cake and chocolates.  And then we were supposed to go back home for the dinner that I had already prepped!  Never mind, that will be tomorrow's lunch.  

So instead we got together for a short time over a couple of glasses of wine, with some fresh tomato and buffalo mozzarella, baby radishes and a bowl of salad, before heading off to bed.  What a wonderful, fun-filled day this has been - but so much food!!