Through an oak forest in Italy’s Langhe Hills, I followed a non-descript little mongrel named Erculo, no run-of-the-woods pooch despite his uncertain parentage. In fact, Erculo holds a university degree, and in Italy’s Piemonte, that’s more valuable than a pedigree. He is, in fact, a valuable hunting dog.

I rustled through fallen oak leaves following Erculo — whose pointy little Universita dei Cani da Tartufo-educated nose was hot on the scent — in the company of the school’s headmaster, Giovanni Monchiero. As Erculo bounded from tree to tree busily sniffing the ground, Giovanni told me in his deep Piemonte accent about the school he runs: the University of Truffle Hunting Dogs.

While pigs may hunt other truffles, Giovanni explained, the rare white truffle is best detected by dogs. And that’s why we are in the woods this brisk November afternoon — we’re truffle hunting, hoping to return with a few precious ounces of “white diamonds.”

From October until January, the area around Alba is obsessed with Tuber magnatum pico, most precious of all fungi. That’s the season when trifolai (truffle hunters) like Giovanni can gather the gnarly black knobs chefs are willing to pay hundreds of dollars to shave tissue-thin over a signature dish. The record price was set in 2007 when a 3.3-pound white truffle sold for $330,000.

This in mind, I watched with great interest as Erculo began to dig excitedly at the ground next to a large oak. Giovanni watched closely, too, so he could pull the dog away just in time avoid damaging the truffle. From there he carefully scratched the dark soil away with his fingers and the end of a stick.

Erculo’s find wasn’t a three-pound ticket to riches as a kid I had played with bigger marbles —but it was enough to fill that evening’s risotto with an ethereal flavor of autumn woods, and the rest turned the next morning’s fried eggs into ambrosia.