Truffles are ugly mushrooms. They look like lumpy potatoes that grow underground and cling to the roots of some trees like pecans, hazelnuts, and oaks and are hard to find. But how delicious are they…
The rarity partly explains why they are on the list of the most expensive foods in the world depending on the variety, a kilo can cost between 100 euros, the equivalent of R$ 560, and 4,000 euros, which is more than R$ 22 million
And there’s no shortage of people willing to spend that fortune. Truffles are extremely aromatic, have an intriguing flavor like no other and the power to transform a simple fried egg into a haute cuisine dish. If you try, don’t forget.
Until a few years ago, it was said that they were so expensive because you couldn’t grow them. Voluntarily, they only grew spontaneously where they wanted and some countries knew how to use this luck and turned their truffles into delicacies that are coveted worldwide and that could move the economy of entire regions.
This is the case of Alba in northern Italy, famous for its white truffles, the most expensive in the world, or Périgord in France, whose main attraction are black truffles.
In 2021, chef Umberto Bombana (second left to right) spent BRL 650,000 for 900 grams of this white truffle Image: Reproduction/Instagram
until here
What is new is that truffles can already be cultivated. Chile, Argentina, the United States, Uruguay, New Zealand, Portugal and Australia are already consistently producing and even exporting cultivated truffles. Now Brazil is taking the first steps in truffle cultivation.
This story began in 2016 when Gaucho Marcelo Sulzbacher, Professor at the Center for Rural Sciences at the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), found the first Brazilian truffles in pecan tree plantations in Cachoeira do Sul (RS). From an unprecedented species, they were given the scientific name Tuber floridanum but were nicknamed Sapucay, which means bird song in the Tupi language.
Marcelo Sulzbacher and his discovery, the Brazilian Sapucay truffle Image: Marcelo Brum/Disclosure
Word soon spread, and since then, other landowners have swung picks to uncover this wealth beneath their trees. One of them is the fruit grower Rodrigo Veraldi from São Bento do Sapucaí (SP) at the top of the Serra da Mantiqueira, who found the first truffles in autumn 2021.
Unlike Sapucay, they’re of the Tuber borchii variety, called Bianchetto in Italy — whenever he manages to gather a reasonable amount, Veraldi puts the truffles in special dishes at the Entre Vilas restaurant he keeps on the property.
Comparison of two types of Brazilian truffles from southern Brazil and the Serra da Mantiqueira Image: Disclosure
In Paraná, Leandro Becker, owner of an orchard with 1,000 pecan trees, also left after reading about Brazilian truffles. In the last year alone he has dug up 3 kilos. “The biggest of them weighed about 30 grams,” he enthused.
The most excited are already investing in dedicated orchards. In 2022, near Morungaba, in inland São Paulo, engineer Fernando Heer planted a forest of 400 pecan trees inoculated with truffle spores. The seedlings reached a height of about 50 centimeters and have already doubled in size.
Nobody knows exactly when they will pay off, somewhere between 5 and 10 years. Depending on how the plantation develops, I would like to plant four times more in the coming years.” Fernando Army
Fernando Heer’s property (in red, center) will soon bear more fruit or mushrooms Image: Ligia Skowronski
In Monte Verde, on the mining side of the Serra da Mantiqueira, Thiago Comenale follows the same route. Organic producer of a range of species from fruit trees to reforestation timber, he has already planted 1500 seedlings of oak, 300 of hazelnut trees and 200 of various walnut trees all selfvaccinated.
I studied the requirements of the soil and the whole cultivation process intensively in order to be commercially viable,” he says.
Truffles grow underground and cling to the roots of some trees, such as pecan trees.
Since truffles have to be found when they are still hidden in the ground, harvesting is a very complex process. Previously, the task was performed with the help of pigs, however, they could not be trained and ate the truffles from time to time.
Today, specially trained dogs sniff out the ground and can spot where the edible jewels are buried without damaging them In 2021, the entire beautiful Italian trufflehunting ritual was recognized by the United Nations Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity .
The most used dog breed in Italy, Lagotto Romagnoli, has already landed here in Atibaia (SP) breeder Luiza Sobral started with a pair imported from Croatia and has already given birth to 10 puppies in two litters.
Lagotto Romagnoli dog Nero is trained to find truffles underground. Image: Albori Ribeiro
One of the females, Birba, lives on Rodrigo Veraldi’s property and is being trained to hunt truffles with the mixed breed Laika. The male Nero lives in São Paulo with the couple Carlos and Mônica Claro, owners of the restaurant chain Tartuferia San Paolo.
Although the house specialty is Italian truffles, both are lovers of Brazilian production and have included national ones on the menu whenever possible.
Nero started work early. In November 2021, at the age of 10 months, he was taken to Cachoeira do Sul for the first truffle hunt in Brazil and discovered the largest piece ever found here, weighing 134 grams.
Nero is an excellent truffle hunter Photo: Albori Ribeiro Mônica and Carlos Claro with their faithful Nero Photo: Albori Ribeiro
In March of that year, the Claros repeated the dose and took Nero to Leandro Becker’s estate in Paraná. They came back delighted with the dog and the truffles. “Initially, Sapucay weighed an average of 5 grams, and we didn’t manage to weigh more than 20 kilos. This year they will double in size and we should be able to double the volume as well,” says Monika.
According to Marcelo Sulzbacher, they are also more aromatic:
Quality improvement has to do with proper soil management. In orchards that start from scratch, the chances of success are even greater in the years to come.”
Truffles grown in Brazil are already larger and more flavorful, but quality should improve over the years Image: Ligia Skowronski
In the restaurants of Tartuferia San Paolo, customers can enrich any dish with sapucay blades.
The ritual is the same as for the most expensive European truffles. Stored under a glass dome, the fresh acorn is brought to the table by the waiter and weighed in front of the guest. After it has been carefully laminated onto the plate, the waiter weighs the remaining piece to calculate how many grams have been used each gram of sapucay costs R$23 and it is believed that 4 grams is the minimum amount to make the truffle taste good.
A dish has been created especially for the sapucay that Nero found on the Paraná farm: the Rigatoni alla Parmigiana bring the pasta covered with Parmesan fonduta, topped with 4 grams of freshly laminated truffles, for R$ 135 it’s for one limited time as long as there are truffles.
The Rigatoni alla Parmigiana are refined with 4 grams of freshly cut truffles Image: Disclosure
It’s not cheap, but it’s still a bargain compared to the price of a gram of white truffles in Alba in 2022, during European autumn, the only time it’s possible to find them, it cost a gram in Tartuferia R$88 San Paolo and R$95 in the Beefbar. In the Fasano restaurant, the dish Cabelinho de Angel pasta with white truffles was served for R$ 1,300.
Discover the main types of truffles that arrive in Brazil
- White (Tuber magnatum Pico) the most expensive of more than 60 species known worldwide, grows exclusively in the Piedmont region in northern Italy
- Pregiatus (Tuber melanosporum Vitt) the finest of the black truffles, the species found in the Périgord region of France and Norcia in Italy
- Bianchetto (Tuber Borchii Vittadini) similar to the white truffle, also known as Marzuolo and already found in São Bento do Sapucaí (SP).
- Sapucay (Tuber floridanum) was discovered in Rio Grande do Sul in 2016 and has already been found in Paraná
- Estivo (Tuber aestivum Vittadini) Black truffle, typical of the Italian summer, can be harvested between May and September
- Uncinate (Tuber Uncinatum Chatin) similar to the summer truffle (Estivo), grows in the mountains of different Italian regions