266 VOGUE INDIA APRIL 2015 www.vogue.in

living

HUNT FOR TRUFFLES The little-known Italian town of Acqualagna in LE MARCHE is a breeding ground for a multi-million-dollar business, fi nds PRACHI JOSHI

“Chicca, vieni qua (Chicca, come here),” calls out Giorgio Remedia and a wiry, greyhound bounds over, holding in her mouth what looks like a black, misshapen potato the size of my fi st. She drops it in Remedia’s palm and holds open her mouth for a treat, before running off again. One whiff of the musky scent and I know it is no potato, rather the much-valued black truffl e. I am in Acqualagna, the truffl e-hunting capital of the Le Marche region of Italy.

Think Italian tartufi (truffl es) and Alba immediately pops into mind. This tiny town in Piedmont is famous for its prized white truffl es, and hosts the an-nual International Truffl e Fair over six weeks in autumn. However, truffl es grow in most parts of Italy, and Acqualagna has a particularly rich yield. “In Le Marche, we have both black and white truffl es; in fact all nine types of edible truffl es grow in these mountains,” says Mariano Pallottini, ex-editor of Life Marche magazine, who accompanies me on the hunt.

Truffl es grow underground, and are a symbiotic mushroom relying on tree roots for nutrients. They are usually found in thick woodlands, amidst oaks and poplars. And because they grow underground and cannot be detected by the human eye (or nose), truffl e hunters train dogs to do the work. “Ini-tially pigs were used for truffl e hunt-ing, but they are quite unruly and tend to eat the truffl es themselves,” says Remedia. A third-generation truffl e hunter (widely acknowledged as one of the best in Acqualagna), Remedia has trained several dogs.

Chicca (pronounced ki-kka) is eight years old and an expert hunter; in the hour I spent trudging behind Remedia and Pallottini, she dug up a dozen truf-fl es of varying sizes. The previous day’s rains had left the ground muddy, a per-

fect setting for truffl e hunting, though not very kind to my boots. Every time Chicca dug up a truffl e, Remedia patted the soil back in place. “Truffl e spores re-main in the soil and it’s important to restore the environment so that de-velopment of truffl es remains sustainable year-on-year” explains Pallottini.

For a sleepy town of 5,000 residents, Acqualagna seems like an unlikely location for the multi-million-euro truffl e business. Yet there are no less than 10 different truffl e industries here. Acqualagna Tartufi is one amongst them, a 30-year-old, family-owned company that buys a large per-centage of truffl es found in the region. Walking into the facility is like step-ping into truffl e paradise—a pungent, earthy aroma fi lls the air and there are crates piled high with truffl es, waiting to be cleaned. “We sell some truffl es to private buyers, but a large quantity goes into making our truffl e products, such as cream, oil and sauces,” says Emanuela Bartolucci, the owner of Ac-qualagna Tartufi . In a market besieged with synthetically-made truffl e prod-ucts (a growing problem in Italy), Bar-tolucci takes pride in Acqualagna’s high-quality, preservative-free prod-ucts; “it’s all chilometro zero (local),” she adds.

VOGUE PICKSVisit a tru� e fair in Acqualagna. The tru� e season is from April

to November, so you can visit the White Tru� e Fair in October-November, Black Tru� e Fair in February and the Summer Black

Tru� e Fair in August.

Acqualagna is the tru� e-hunting capital of Le Marche

Le Marche

produces over

nine types of

tru� es

Remedia with his greyhound, Chicca

4444444444Le Marche

GETTING THEREFly to Rome, then take a train to Pesaro and rent a car to Acqualagna

Later that night, I dig into a simple dish of buttered pasta, made decadent by a topping of delicately shaved truf-fl es. It’s the most expensive thing I’ve eaten; black truffl es can cost up to €2,000 per kg ( 15,000), while white truffl es go for as much as €5,000 per kg ( 37,000); well worth the price of one ruined pair of boots, in my opinion!