Truffled country bread

Slice the bread so it’s a good ½ in/1¼ cm thick. Throw it in the oven, directly on the rack, to get nice and toasted. Not putting it on a sheet tray allows it to get crispy all over, not just on the top.

When it’s crispy take it out of the oven. Take a head of fresh garlic and pluck off a couple of cloves. Peel them and lightly rub them on the toasted bread. You'll smell a hint of garlic start to waft up towards you, but don’t worry, the flavor won’t be too strong. Next, take some unsalted butter and spread it generously on the bread. I like to use cold butter because more stays on and doesn’t get soaked into the bread.

Now here comes the really decadent part: the freshly cut truffles. The truffles should have a nice, dark marbling in the center —a nd of course be really aromatic. I like to shave them on a truffle mandolin, but you might find slicing them as thinly as you can with your sharpest knife will work as well. Slice enough truffles so you can layer a ¼ in / 6 mm or so all over the slice of bread. Take some delicious sea salt �?a nice larger-crystal rock salt like fleur de sel adds an extra crunch and of course flavor �?and sprinkle it generously over the truffles. Grind some fresh black pepper over the truffles as well. To finish, you’ll want an extra virgin olive oil that’s fruity but not too acidic. You shouldn’t taste any bitterness when you try it straight; something with an acidity of 0.3 percent is really nice. Drizzle the olive oil on the bread and you’re ready to eat!