Nocino

On a visit to north Italy recently, Emilia-Romagna to be precise, a friend found a bottle of an oily, sticky liqueur which was literally like dark tar. This is Nocino. It is about 80 proof which equates to close to 40% ABV (alcohol by volume).

In the medieval ages, Nocino was prepared by monks who used it as a restorative and aid to digestion.

It is an after-dinner liqueur made with green, unripe walnuts, and is appreciated for its unique flavour and aroma, and for its properties as a tonic and digestif. There are a large number of recipes for the production of nocino and its large-scale production literally mirrors that when made at home. In fact, it is said that villages can be recognised by the flavour of their nocino, even the families which have lived for centuries in the same dwellings producing this drink.

The reason the liquer is so dark is because the walnuts need to be steeped in alcohol and they release a variety of compounds which gradually discolour with age. The walnuts are removed and the remaining alcoholic mix is flavoured with other liquors to generate the distinctive aromatic drink.

It has its own authority who monitors its production quality. The ‘Ordine del Nocino Modenese’ is the association of Spilamberto, a province of Modena which has the responsibility for assessing its quality. Modena incidentally is also famous for its balsamic vinegar and it is not surprising that given the beauty of that particular product, so many other interesting foods should come from that region.