Cheese Fondue with Truffles by Elisabeth Luard
If you can lay your hands on fresh ‘magnato’, ask three of your best friends to share the feast –
as with a pound of caviar, four is the maximum number to one good-sized truffle. If necessary,
you can replace the Fontina with half Gruyère and half Emmental cheese. Serves 4
Ingredients:
300 g Fontina cheese
300 ml milk or single cream
4 egg yolks
To finish
1 good-sized (30–50 g) fresh white truffle, cleaned
Chop the cheese into tiny pieces with a sharp knife – worth the effort since it produces a
smoother mix than if you grate it, but a food processor will do the job in no time.
Put the cheese into a basin with the milk warmed to blood heat. Stand the basin over a
saucepanful of boiling water. Cover it with a clean cloth. The milk and cheese must be kept
warm on the side of the stove for an hour, so that the cheese melts very gently into the milk.
While you are waiting, make a plain risotto, or prepare thick slices of fresh bread for each of your
guests. Put four plates to warm.
At the end of the hour whisk the egg yolks with the cheese and milk. Put the saucepan on
the heat and bring the water to the boil. Turn it down to simmer. Carry on whisking while the
mixture thickens over the simmering water. Don’t hurry it. When the mixture has thickened so
that it can comfortably blanket the back of a wooden spoon, take it off the heat.
Make sure your friends are all at the table, each with a warm plate on which you have
placed either a thick slice of bread scattered with little pieces of fresh butter or a mound of
risotto. Pour the fonduta over the bread or risotto, or hand the pan to the participants and let
them serve themselves, along with the truffle and its grater.
To serve: toasted country bread or plain risotto (or plain-cooked potatoes, boiled or baked) and unsalted butter
*taken from the book ‘From Seed to plate’ by Paolo Arrigo, published by Simon and Schuster