Truffle recipes prepared as Romanian first in Miercurea Ciuc-based Italian restaurant

Liver pate with truffles, focaccia with mozzarella and truffles, or truffles with beef tenderloin are just some of the dishes served as a first in an Italian restaurant in the city of Miercurea Ciuc - Harghita County, and which exquisitely highlight the precious fungus also referred to as 'the diamond of the kitchen', given the difficulty to find it.

Photos by Gina STEFAN / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

Restaurant manager Italo De Michelis had the idea to include truffle preparations in the menu about six years ago, when someone offered him truffles to buy. He was familiar with them from his mother country Italy, where they are a quite frequently used item in local gastronomy, and was surprised and excited to learn they can be found in Romania too. This is why he tried various recipes and began using truffles in the menu, with the dishes proving immediately a real success.

Italo also developed a recipe of his own: "liver pate with truffles a la San Gennaro", which became a favorite of the customers.

''To prepare truffle pate one uses pork, chicken liver, onion, celery and carrot. Get the pork parboiled, while the vegetables are fried in oil, then add the pork, chicken liver, salt, pepper and a teaspoon of capers. After the mix simmered through, pass it twice through the mincing machine. When serving, mix with a teaspoon of truffle oil, add grated truffles and put thinly sliced truffles on top. Eat with toast and butter," Italo De Michelis details his recipe.

He says this is his house recipe and is so prized that they prepare it every day or every two days.

The Italian also designed a universal truffle sauce that is added to rice, noodles or even to beef tenderloin with truffles.

''I put a piece of butter in a pan, because...