Tajarin recipe with white truffle from the Langhe

Tajarin is the yolk-heavy egg pasta of the Langhe, cut by hand into ribbons a millimetre wide and dressed in butter emulsified with pasta water, with white truffle shaved over at the table.

The dish exists because Alba sits in truffle country and because Piedmontese farm cooking used yolks where other regions used whole eggs. A dough of that richness takes almost no water, which is why it needs long kneading and a proper rest before it will roll thin.

This is a house version, built for a domestic rolling pin and 25 grams of truffle rather than a restaurant's shaving hand. Everything here is technique, not invention: the only decisions that matter are how thin you roll and how hot the butter gets.

Truffle in the pan is money on the extractor fan. Shave it at the table.

Ingredients

• 300 g Italian 00 flour
• 12 egg yolks, about 220 g
• 1 whole egg
• 5 g fine salt
• Semolina, for dusting
• 120 g cold unsalted butter, diced
• 25 g fresh white truffle
• Flaky salt, to finish

Method

1. Mix the flour and fine salt on a board, make a well, and add the yolks and the whole egg. Bring it together with a fork, then knead for a full ten minutes. A dough this low in water will feel tight and slightly dry at first; keep working it until the surface turns smooth and elastic.
2. Wrap and rest at room temperature for an hour. The rest relaxes the gluten so the sheet rolls thin without springing back or tearing.
3. Roll to one millimetre, working in two batches so the sheet stays manageable. Dust generously with semolina, fold the sheet loosely into a flat roll, and cut by hand into strips one to two millimetres wide. Lift and toss the strands to separate them.
4. Melt the butter with two tablespoons of pasta water in a wide pan over low heat, swirling constantly until it turns into a pale, glossy sauce. If it boils it splits, and a split butter will slide off the pasta instead of coating it.
5. Cook the tajarin in well-salted water for 60 to 90 seconds. Pasta this thin is ready as soon as it floats and the surface loses its raw sheen.
6. Drain, tip into the butter off the heat and toss for half a minute, adding pasta water a spoonful at a time until the sauce clings. Season with flaky salt.

Truffle, storage and what to drink

Shave the truffle over warm bowls at the table. Heat lifts the aroma but cooking destroys it, so the truffle never goes in the pan. Buy firm, heavy pieces that smell of garlic and wet earth; the Alba fair runs a quality commission on every truffle it sells, which is the standard to hold your supplier to.

Keep truffle wrapped in dry kitchen paper in a sealed jar in the fridge, change the paper daily and use it within three or four days. Storing it in rice is a myth that dries it out. Drink an aged Nebbiolo, Barolo or Barbaresco, with enough bottle age that the tannin has softened.