Filet mignon with black truffle butter. Filets are generally not as flavorful as other cuts, so I usually serve with a flavorful accompaniment such as a gorgonzola butter or green peppercorn sauce or wrap them in bacon. To really punch up the richness and flavor, you can cook the steaks sous vide with a tablespoon or two of truffle butter in the bag. Since the steaks cook at a low temperature, the truffle flavor doesn’t degrade nearly as much as it does if you cook it into a sauce. After the steaks have been cooked to your liking in the water bath, plunge them into ice water for 10-20 minutes to bring the core temperature down so that you don’t overcook them when browning. Then quickly sear them in a very hot pan. Serve with a disk of fresh, room temperature truffle butter on top.

Lobster and truffle grilled cheese sandwiches. I recently wrote about the lobster and truffle grilled cheese at Pamplemousse Grille in San Diego and promised a home version. Well, here they are… We used more lobster and butter poached it, because, well, all lobster is better butter poached. Unfortunately, the truffles we had access to weren’t nearly up to the quality of those used by Pamplemousse. We shaved an entire black Oregon truffle onto these sandwiches so that there was a full layer on each, but the flavor still wasn’t there. Next time, we need better truffles, or to add a truffled cheese or other source of flavor. Still a fantastic appetizer, just a bit different. Here’s how we did it:

Start with two 1.25-1.5lbs lobsters and butter poach them per Thomas Keller’s method (or just steam them, particularly if you want less butter). Butter one side of 8 slices of sandwich bread with the crusts cut off. Layer four pieces of bread (buttered side down) with 1/8 inch thick slices of cheese. We liked Comté best, but I bet a number of good cheeses work here. If you’re truffles are weak, you might want to go with an Italian truffled cheese. Next, shave truffles on each piece to taste. If you don’t have access to truffles, try the afore mentioned truffle cheese plus a drizzle of truffle oil, or even use truffle butter in place of regular for the sandwiches. Finally, add a layer of cheese, then cover with bread, butter side up. With the bottom of a skillet, flatten the sandwich firmly. Repeat for the remaining sandwiches. In a skillet over medium heat, melt a tablespoon of butter then add two of the sandwiches. Cook to golden brown on each side, then transfer to a 250 degree oven and repeat for the second batch. If the second batch comes out of the pan with the cheese not yet melted, transfer them to the oven as well until to melt. That’s it. Cut into triangles and serve, preferably with a good Champagne like this 2000 Bollinger Grande Année which is a gorgeous wine and great match for this dish.

Fazzoletti with Guanciale, Parmesiano-Reggiano, and black truffle. Steve and Patti made the beautiful handkerchief pasta. We gently folded each of them around a bit of Guanciale in a thick cream sauce, topped with Parmesan, then shaved black summer truffles over that. The size I suggested for the pasta was probably an inch too big (next time, we’ll make 4-inch noodles), but this was this was a fantastic dish all around.

Black summer truffles from Oregon Mushrooms. These were pretty good. Rather, I should say two were quite good and two were a little dried out and less flavorful. Is there an accepted failure rate in these things? The better ones were softer and more aromatic even before shaving, so it doesn’t even seem like it’s that hard to tell.