Recipe: Truffle oil, lemon and walnut spaghetti

Spaghetti with truffle and walnut sauce recipe

I first discovered truffle oil on a year abroad in Italy. I was having lunch in an eaterie near the Duomo in Milan called the Panino Giusto and ordered – as this was back in my pre-vegan days – a Speck and Provolone panino. It had this incredible, intense, earthy flavour I’d never experience before, and I asked the server what it was. She told me that it was ‘olio al tartufo’ – which I’d never heard of, but was hooked from that day on.

Milan visit inspired recipe for truffle and walnut spaghetti
Milan’s Piazza Duomo

This was back in 1994, so it was a rare ingredient to find in the UK, whereas now it’s pretty easy to find it in most supermarkets. This truffled spaghetti is a decadent and rich pasta dish that’s bursting with flavour, so definitely not one to make if you’re on a diet! This recipe serves four medium size bowls of spaghetti.

INGREDIENTS

  • Block silken tofu
  • 100g walnuts
  • 2 lemons
  • Salt
  • 2 tbsp truffle oil plus more for drizzling
  • 2 handfuls parsley
  • About 250g spaghetti

METHOD

  1. To prepare the sauce, you don’t need to press the tofu as you are adding water anyway and blending it. Put it in your blender (I used a Nutribullet) with the juice of a lemon, a teaspoon salt, the walnuts, 2 tbsp truffle oil, a handful of parsley plus around 100ml warm water so the sauce isn’t too thick. Add more water if it isn’t creamy enough.
  2. Then cook the spaghetti to your taste and serve topped with the rest of the parsley – you’ll probably find this dish doesn’t require much seasoning as it’s so laden with flavour already.

Maybe even enjoy it with my homemade fennel and olive rolls!