Nocino

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By

Sharon Flynn

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The lovely thing about nocino is that you make it in late spring using soft and fleshy green walnuts and set it aside, visit it in autumn, and finally when the weather is cold and you’re more in the mood for the darker, bitter, herby-sweet liqueur – it is ready. 

Nocino definitely tastes like a winter drink. It gets better with age and really comes into its own after one year.

This drink is also steeped in a bit of folklore, both pagan and Christian, which tells us the walnuts need to be picked by a barefoot expert woman and left on the ground to catch the dew when the dark changes to light. I just got mine from the grower in a bag, but it is a goal of mine to be an expert woman.

My friend in nocino (and creative genius), Anthony Nelson, made a nocino that we loved – out of honey, vodka and just-green walnuts. He also did a late season batch with barely-green walnuts – almost too late but that was delicious, too.

from Recipes https://ift.tt/pTKwOmb