Nocino recipe: the liqueur made from walnuts

Nocino is a delicious liqueur from the Emilia Romagna region, in Northern Italy. It is made from green and undeveloped walnuts. As the story goes, walnuts should be harvested on June 24, the Saint John's Day (or San Giovanni as we call him here in Italy); if you prepare your Nocino on that day and you have the patience to wait until Christmas, the outcome will be great!

Ingredients

• 1 litre of ethyl alcohol;
• 22 green walnuts early enough in the season;
• 2 grams (0.07 onces) of cinnamon;
• 9 cloves;
• 1 lemon peel (not processed!);
• 600 grams (21 onces) of sugar;
• 4 litres (0.2 gallons) of water.

Preparation

In order to prepare the Nocino, first of all buy (or harvest :) ) 22 green walnuts; be careful though, I'm not talking about dried ones! Split them in four parts, without peeling them (the peel is called cupule, or mallo in Italian). I suggest to use gloves for this operation, otherwise your hands will turn green. Then put the pieces inside a capacious glass vase and add the cinnamon, the cloves and the lemon peel. Lastly, pour the alcohol inside the vase, right over the compound.

Leave that mixture 40 days under the sun. Every day you have to shake it powerfully.

After the period of 40 days it's time to melt the sugar in warm water (I didn't forget them!); then, once the water has chilled, add it to the compound. Keep the vase under the sun for other 10 days, shaking it every day as we did before.

The Nocino is finally ready. Filter the compound - because we want only the liqueur, not the whole ingredients - and get ready to enjoy it. If you are brave and you can wait until Christmas, the Nocino will be even better.