Truffle and Chantrelle Pizza and Italian Wine Tasting

Reason #101 why we love our kitchen; the new convection oven! We used to attempt to make pizza in our old kitchen, but it never came out right. With a few new changes, our pizza has never been better. Hate to sound full of ourselves, but our kids (one day) will be eating some great homemade pizza!

The key for us is to use the convection oven, a pizza stone (I bought from Crate and Barrel for Emi), frozen pizza dough from Central Market, and parchment paper (great tip from Carol).

We wanted to splurge a little for Emi's aunt and uncle who were in town from Hawaii and bought some black truffles for our pizza. $248 a pound! However we only needed a little bit.

The black truffles didn't end up being all that flavorful because in hindsight we think they may have been a little old and dried out. A few weeks later we bought some white truffles from Central Market and they almost knocked me out with their overpowering scent. Now I know how they should have smelled. We love truffle anything, but had never had fresh truffles.

Emi bought some amazing truffle cheese from Trader Joe's that she shredded and mixed with mozzarella to top the pizza. She also sauteed some fresh, wild chantrelles in olive oil and garlic to top the pizza. After cooking the pizza in the oven we thinly sliced the truffle over the pizza. One of the best pizzas ever and when we duplicated it a few weeks later with the white truffles, even better.

We also sampled Emi's uncles favorite wine, the Trader Joe's Barolo. I don't think it's TJ brand, but he's only ever found this great Italian wine there. We ended up bringing two bottles with us as an Xmas gift on this most recent trip out to Hawaii. Highly recommended wine that complemented our pizza perfectly. Only tip is to let is breathe a solid 15 minutes or so before you start to enjoy it.

- Kyle