Health and Fitness

Black Truffle Sea Salt and Pasta

Bold and earthy! Natural and un-aged salt! Sea salt is the choice of chefs and home cooks alike for its delectable flavor, versatile use, and naturally occurring feature. It's also a great value for what you get, with the highest sodium content of any salt product on the market today.

Italian black truffles are the result of volcanic activity, volcanic ash and dust are rich in minerals such as potassium, magnesium, sodium, and iron. This interaction produces sodium hydroxide (lye) along with sulfur dioxide (a byproduct of this chemical reaction). When heated, this earthy, salty taste is obtained when heated with the air or water, allowing the flavors to penetrate deep into the food.

In cooking, this earthy flavor lends itself perfectly to using it with tomato sauce, eggs, cheese, meat, fish, salad dressings and a wide range of other dishes. It goes great with fish stews, pasta sauces, and bean dishes. If you've tried another brand of pasta sauce, you'll love how this one enhances the flavors of your favorite dishes. It also works beautifully with eggs, carrots, celery, zucchini, mushrooms, garlic, onions, and other vegetables.

Another way to enhance the flavors of this savory blend is to add it to mineral water, white wine, or champagne. This salty blend comes to life when combined with these highly popular drinks. The mineral aspects of the black truffle sea salt blend are enhanced even more when paired with a full glass of champagne. It is like floating jewels on a cocktail party!

In terms of how to use this salt in your cooking, it goes great as a seasoning for just about any meat or seafood dish. In fact, it goes best with pork, beef, turkey and chicken. You can season your pasta dishes, vegetable dishes and soups with it as well. For that matter, it works wonderfully on wild rice, spinach, green beans, corn and many other vegetables.

But perhaps it is the meat that really brings out the flavor of this blend. The aged, Cajun flavor lends it a savory familiarity that is hard to describe. Add it to fish dishes or to sauteed mushrooms and vegetables, and you will have a dish that people will be talking about for a long time to come. The aged cheddar gives it a smooth texture that is melt-in-your-mouth perfection. And the aged mushroom taste, reminiscent of liver, makes this a perfect complement to sausage, veal and other grilled meats.

There are two kinds of black truffle mushrooms available, British and continental. The British version is larger than the continental variety and is usually sold in smaller containers. They are also more densely packaged, which is why they retain their smoky, mushroom flavor for a longer period of time. But you don't really need to use the bigger variety if you're only going to prepare it a couple of times a year. It adds an incredible flavor to soups, stews and other dishes that you can prepare without the salt.

The longer aged Italian porcini mushrooms are also used, which results in a mushroom that is significantly less pungent than the British variety. That's why the classic California black truffles are prepared with it. However, the aged mushrooms are used as well. That's why we see the aged New England truffles being prepared with them as well. It's just a matter of preference which one you like best.

One thing that you should always remember is that salt retains minerals and flavors better than other seasonings do. If you add seasonings to your food, such as herbs and spices, they will eventually begin to take on the flavor of the other ingredients. When you salt your foods, they keep their flavor all along. That's why many people like to make black summer truffles with a little bit of salt leftover from the mushrooms when preparing the dish. It adds a delightful flavor to the dish without overpowering the other ingredients.

A typical recipe calls for a teaspoon of each kind of salt, but feel free to adjust this amount to your tastes. A great way to adjust the amount of salt is to add a little bit of table salt to your cooking water, stir it around and let it settle. This will give you a different flavor than you would get from a teaspoon of table salt. You can also purchase black truffle salt from specialty stores and even online. This brand is a very classy and elegant choice and is not at all sticky in texture.

As you can see, black truffle oil goes a long way to making beautiful pasta dishes. These pastas are simply wonderful. They are made using a high heat and then baked in the oven until the bottom is crispy. They are then finished with a fettuccine on top. This is a delicious and extravagant way to present your pasta meal, and once you try this recipe, you will be hooked!