Frozen summer truffle: how to thaw it and use it in cooking

The frozen summer truffle is a simple solution to enhance your dishes when it’s not truffle season. Let’s find out how to use it in the kitchen

 

How do you cook a frozen summer truffle? Do you need to defrost it completely? What are the best recipes to enhance it? We’re going to explain it to you.

The fresh summer truffle, typical of the summer, is an excellent ingredient for flavouring risotto and pasta or to be used in flakes on a butter crouton. But how do you do it when it is not in season, but you don’t want to give up its delicate and engaging taste? 

Simple: you can use the frozen summer truffle!

But what changes when the fresh summer truffle is frozen? 

How do you eat frozen truffles? 

Are frozen truffles any good? 

Let’s find out together.

 

How to use the frozen summer truffle

 

The frozen summer truffle is the ideal solution for those who love summer truffles all year round and do not want to wait for spring or summer to taste it. It is also an exceptional alternative for pregnant women who want a truffle-based dish, but do not dare to resort to the fresh one for fear of Toxoplasmosis.

In fact, consuming truffles during pregnancy can be risky if they are not perfectly clean. Being a fruit of the earth, in most cases added uncooked to a dish, if not washed well, it could retain traces of Toxoplasma Gondii, the parasite that causes Toxoplasmosis, and thus prove dangerous for the unborn child.

However, it is still possible to consume truffles while pregnant safely. In fact, once the summer truffle is frozen for at least 24 hours, this problem no longer arises: low temperatures kill the parasite, making the truffle safe food even during gestation.

 

At this point, another question arises: how to use frozen summer truffle in the kitchen? Exactly how summer truffles are used: to enhance the flavour of a plate of fettuccine or tagliolini, as an accompanying sauce for a tagliata or to turn a butter-smeared crouton into an experience to remember.

 

How to consume frozen summer truffles

 

We at Trivelli Tartufi have frozen our fresh summer truffle to allow you to savour its delicate fragrance whenever you want… even in the middle of winter! In fact, this ingredient is ready to arrive at your home with all its flavour. 

But how to use frozen summer truffle? Don’t worry, there is nothing complicated about it.

 

Our summer truffles have already been cleaned before being frozen and vacuum-packed: all you have to do is open the package, take a truffle, and add it to your recipes!

The other frozen summer truffles contained in the package can be safely returned to the freezer, to be used next time, as long as they have not been defrosted. 

Eventually, remember that a thawed product should never be put back into the freezer, but stored in the refrigerator and consumed within 24 hours.

On the other hand, our 200- or 500-gram packs, will provide you with enough frozen summer truffles for many gourmet lunches and dinners. In fact, the delicate taste of just one of our frozen summer truffles is already enough to enrich a recipe with flavour.

 

How to defrost summer truffles

 

Using frozen summer truffle is very simple: once removed from the freezer, there is no need to defrost it completely. Just pass it quickly under running water, both to remove any impurities and to make it soften, making it easier to grate.

For example, you can grate it and then put it in a pan with butter (or oil) and salt: let it heat (but do not fry it) over very low heat for at least five minutes, stirring it from time to time. Finally, leave it in the pan with the lid on for another five minutes, with the heat off.

Now the frozen summer truffle can be added to a hot dish (to enrich a pasta or a cut of meat), where it will release all its fragrances, but you can also let it cool, put it in a glass container and keep it in the fridge for 48 hours.

 

How to cook frozen summer truffle

 

If you are passionate consumers of this underground mushroom, you know the golden rule: never cook truffles. And even the frozen summer truffle is no exception. The only one of the black truffle family that can withstand cooking, in fact, is the precious black truffle.

 

In all other cases, cooking the truffle is heresy, as it would lose all its flavour. This is even more true for frozen summer truffles, as this variety of truffle already has a very delicate flavour and can lose some of its fragrance after freezing.

 

Heating frozen summer truffles in a pan is a recommended procedure to make the best use of them and allow them to regain their fragrance but subjecting them to violent cooking is not a good idea at all.

 

Also remember not to add other flavours that are too “strong” to your recipe, which would risk covering the taste and scent of the truffle. In fact, our frozen summer truffle, preserves the delicacy of fresh summer truffle and should never be dominated by other ingredients: the best choice is to use it as the only protagonist of your dish, in combination with more subtle flavours, such as those of butter or extra virgin olive oil.

 

Do you miss the taste of summer truffles and want to opt for frozen summer truffles? Write to us at commerciale@trivellitartufi.it we will be happy to send you our frozen summer truffle ready to add to all your recipes!