Widely used and appreciated in Italian cuisine as well as abroad, they are fished using large fishing boats equipped with special bottom dredges.
The use of dredges is considered highly harmful because, destroying everything they encounter, notices the greatest concentration of sea truffles close to the Posidonia meadows, inexorably compromises the integrity of the plants, hindering marine oxygenation and annihilating the entire niche biological.
Less famous than clams, mussels and oysters, sea truffles also belong to the 1st fundamental group of foods (sources of proteins with high biological value, vitamins - such as group B and vitamin A - and specific minerals - such as iron , iodine, etc.). They are suitable for most diets but may have contraindications which we will discuss later.
Sea truffles are edible cooked and raw; they are processed in a similar way to other bivalve molluscs (including razor clams, cockles, edible hearts, clams, etc.) and, in order to be considered hygienically safe, they require a guarantee of a good quality level.
valve), however, it is more rounded, rounded and with a knurled surface. Sea truffles from the Atlantic Ocean reach 6-7 cm in length and 60-70 g in weight; in the Mediterranean, the most common specimens are 3-4 cm by 30-40 g. They differ from cockles (even larger ) for the color of the shell (externally they have shades ranging from light yellow to beige-brown or even reddish; the inside is white and shiny) and for the irregular surface composed of ridges or lamellae (about 50 per side) that follow horizontally the shells.
The internal mollusk is very similar to that of the clam. The foot is large and shaped like a "tongue". The siphons are short, dark, of unequal length and fused together. They do not have bright red hues like cockles, mussels or edible hearts.
, specific vitamins and minerals, sea truffles belong to the 1st fundamental group of foods.
The available information on the chemical profile of sea truffles is quite limited. On the other hand, given the close similarity between the various foods in the category, it is possible to put forward hypotheses, if not certain, at least plausible.
Sea truffles should be low-calorie foods (about 85 kcal / 100 g of edible part) whose energy is supplied mainly by peptides, followed by a very modest quantity of carbohydrates and an almost irrelevant percentage of lipids. The proteins are of high biological value, that is, they contain all the essential amino acids in the right quantities and proportions (compared to the human model). Carbohydrates are likely to be essentially complex, i.e. made up of glycogen. The fatty acid profile should favor the unsaturated ones, with a possible appreciable level of omega 3 (eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acid).
As with other bivalve molluscs, the amount of cholesterol should be significant. Fibers and prebiotics are logically absent. Sea truffles, which quite frequently cause allergies in the population, are on the other hand totally free of lactose and gluten (nutrients responsible for food intolerance). It is possible that the histamine concentration is more than relevant.
Among the vitamins, there should be excellent levels of water-soluble B group (thiamine or B1, riboflavin or B2, niacin or PP, pantothenic acid or B5, pyridoxine or vitamin B6, cobalamin or B12), probably also a good concentration of equivalent retinol ( provitamin A) and possibly vitamin D (cholecalciferol).
As for minerals, sea truffles should contain appreciable levels of: potassium, phosphorus, sodium, iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc, selenium, copper and iodine.
