Gemignani
Toscanolio Shop - Our Partner Gemignani Tartufi S.r.l.
Gemignani, a matter of family passion... the Gemignani story began around 1930 in a small village of the municipality of of San Miniato in the province of Pisa when the Gemignani family discovered that the famous white truffle was being collected in the woods of the hills in which they lived. So they started to buy truffles from local truffle hunters in order to sell them to the merchants who came through San Miniato. Over four generations this special family trade has been handed down from father to son. It is now in the hands of Filippo who, with the invaluable help of his family, continues it with passion and experience.
Gemignani creates in its laboratory “precious truffle specialities” to let food lovers taste the truffle the whole year, giving primary importance to the meticulous selection of the raw materials, respecting in the artisanal cycle of production the traditional recipies with a careful attention to the modern high art of cooking. Today the company embodies a modern firm representative of the excellence of "Made in Italy" that combines passion and know how with food manufacturing efficiency always looking at the future trends of the modern gastronomy. Gemignani products are distributed by the best Italian shops and worldwide by specialised importers - including our Toscanolio Shop offering the line "Italia" to you.
Our recipes are prepared only with the truffles selected with care and high quality raw materials; they are gluten, colorants and preservatives free.
Truffle - Tuscany is a very important and famous region for the production of the truffles: the tastiest varieties of this precious and rare fungus are collected with the precious help of the dogs in the uncontaminated woods of this region: precious white truffle (Tuber Magnatum Pico), the spring white truffle (Tuber Borchii Vitt.), summer black truffle (Tuber Aestivum Vitt.), winter black truffle (Tuber Uncinatum Ch.) and precious black truffle (Tuber Melanosporum).
The truffle is an edible subterranean fungus, therefore a fungus that develops, grows and reach its maturation underground living in symbiosis with some small bushes’ roots or trees like the poplars, hazelnut trees, oaks, lindens and holm oaks. The truffle gets essential nutrients like water (the 70%) and minerals from these kinds of plants. It gets the shape and the color from the lay of the land: in this way the external part is more or less smooth and round depending on the hardness of the subsoil and the color more or less dark depending on the ingredients of the soil.
Once the truffle reaches the right degree of maturation, the fruit gives off a particular unmistakable and unique scent different from one variety to another.
The harvest of the truffles is regulated by a determined regional calendar and the truffle hunters must be in the posession of a specific licence issued after they underwent a particular examination. The expert truffle hunter knows well the land and walks the woods’ paths with his faithful dog in the early morning. The dog is well trained and thanks to its skills, succeeds in smelling the ripen truffle that is immediately gathered with extreme care in order not to break it with the help of a special spade.
The truffle is so difficult to find because it requires an absolutely uncontaminated ground ... which we do not have left too much. The areas where to find the truffle and the quantities harvested are extremely reduced compared to the past.