White truffles in San Miniato, Tuscany

It's white truffle season in Italy and boy have I indulged!!
http://www.italianmade.com/foods/subcat29001.cfm



First off, we tasted (three times in Bologna in 3 different restaurants) Tagliolini all'uovo al Tartufo Bianco (fresh egg pasta with butter and shaved white truffle). That did it for me and so I had to find more fresh truffles (now I know how those truffle hunting dogs feel like). To my delight, Richard found an advert for a truffle festival in Tuscany. Perfect! The next week-end we jumped on a train to Firenze (1 hour in the Eurostar), a short regional ride from Firenze to San Miniato and a short bus-ride from there to the hill-top town of historic, picturesque, history and truffle infused, San Miniato (see photo).
As soon as we got off the bus we could smell the earthy delights - all we had to do was follow our nose and our increasingly gurgling stomachs in anticipation of the fungal delight.
Following the signs to the truffle festival, we discovered the stalls displaying mountains of the dirty tempters. However, we could not stop to look - we had to eat!!!

The discovery of the local hotel and restaurant:
Albergo Ristorante Miravalle*** Piazzetta del Castello, 3 - 56027 San Miniato (Pi)Tel. ++39.0571.418075 - ++39.0571.401015 Fax ++39.0571.401968
E-mail: info@albergomiravalle.com,
with its special truffle menu for 50 euro was worth the trip. I cannot begin to describe how superb it was. The menu consisted of a welcome glass of prosecco followed by a degustation of 5 starters, 3 first courses, 4 main courses and 2 dessert. We drank Antinori's Badia a Passignano with all courses except dessert which was accompanied by a muffato (on the house).
Finally, we waddled out of the restaurant and bought fresh truffles (15 grams for 30 euro), a truffle shaver and one litre of new season olive oil from the San Miniato hills before heading back to Firenze for a quick shop before catching the train to Bologna.
The festival is on every November during truffle season. It's on our agenda for next year. Don't miss it. Here's the menu:

MENU’ DEGUSTAZIONE TARTUFO BIANCO DELLE COLLINE SANMINIATESI

Mousse tiepida tartufata,
Bignolina calda alla fonduta di tartufo,
Crostini alla crema di mascarpone e lamelle di tartufo,
Sformatino di baccala’ e tartufo
Lonzino di cinta senese con lamelle di tartufo,

Tagliolini all’uovo con lamelle di tartufo,
Risotto carnaroli tartufato con scaglie di pecorino,
Crespella di farina di ceci farcita con ricotta di pecora, patate e tartufo,

Carpaccio di vitellone con scaglie di parmigiano e lamelle di tartufo,
Coniglio farcito con magro di manzo e tartufo,
Uovo con scaglie al tartufo,
Sformato di patate,

Sfogliatina al cioccolato su salsa di fragole,
Bavarese alla crema con frutti di bosco e lingua di gatto.