The JournalThe Wood Oven1 min read

The two truffle pizzas

One is savory and one is sweet, both come out with fresh black truffle shaved over the top, and the choice between them is really about dessert.

Stellina Ristorante
A truffle pizza at Stellina, being lifted from the plate

There are two truffle pizzas on the list and they are not variations on each other. They are opposites, and people order the wrong one about half the time.

Al Tartufo, the savory one

Fior di latte, a black truffle and mushroom cream, spinach, lemon zest, and fresh black truffle shaved over it as it comes out. No tomato. The mushroom cream is what makes it: it gives the truffle something earthy to sit in, so the whole thing reads deep and savory rather than perfumed. The lemon zest is there to stop it becoming heavy, and you notice its absence if you imagine the pizza without it.

This is a middle-of-the-meal pizza. Put it down beside a red and let the table work through it.

Ricotta di Buffala e Tartufo, the sweet one

Buffalo ricotta, arugula, truffle honey, and shaved black truffle. Sweet, milky and floral, and much lighter than it sounds. The honey is not a garnish here, it is the point, and the arugula is the only bitter thing keeping it honest.

Order this one last. It sits closer to a cheese course than to a pizza, and it is a far better ending to dinner than most desserts.

If you only want one

Take the Al Tartufo if you are hungry and the Ricotta di Buffala e Tartufo if you are nearly finished. And if you want the same idea before you even sit down properly, the ricotta and truffle honey also exists as a spuntino, with crispy pane carasau to scoop it up.

Truffle is shaved fresh in both cases, at the table's expense and to the table's benefit.

Read it, then come and eat it.

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