Tagliatelle with Truffle Butter

Despite my doctor’s warnings, I love rich, buttery pasta dishes. But I can’t help but feel guilty after consuming a large bowl of carbs and cream. Then, somewhere along the way, I was introduced to truffles added to buttery pasta, which is good since truffles are like expensive mushrooms. And since mushrooms are said to have medicinal benefits that must mean truffles are extremely beneficial to my health. Healthy pasta? Check.



Ingredients

Kosher salt
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 ounces white truffle butter
Freshly ground black pepper
1 (8.82-ounce) package Cipriani tagliarelle dried pasta or other egg fettuccine
3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
3 ounces Parmesan, shaved thin with a vegetable peeler

Directions

Add 1 tablespoon salt to a large pot of water and bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, in a large (12-inch) saute pan, heat the cream over medium heat until it comes to a simmer. Add the truffle butter, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, lower the heat to very low, and swirl the butter until it melts. Keep warm over very low heat.

Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook for 3 minutes, exactly. (If you're not using Cipriani pasta, follow the directions on the package.) When the pasta is cooked, reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water, then drain the pasta. Add the drained pasta to the saute pan and toss it with the truffle-cream mixture. As the pasta absorbs the sauce, add as much of the reserved cooking water, as necessary, to keep the pasta very creamy.

Serve the pasta in shallow bowls and garnish each serving with a generous sprinkling of chives and shaved Parmesan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve at once.

FYI, I was lazy and used already grated Parmesan. Another thing to keep in mind is that the pasta absorbs a surprising amount of liquid, so the pasta might seem runny at first, leading you to think you won’t need the extra cooking water, but you’ll end up using it all. Just keep tossing as the liquid is absorbed and you’ll have creamy, tender truffle pasta.

Here, I served it with some "seared" scallops topped with some fleur de sel with dried garlic and basil. Yes, I know the scallops look fried. I got happy and used too much oil so the scallops ended up fried rather than seared. But it was still delicious.