Purtill Family Nocino Negroni

When my brother and I decided to re-create our family’s century old recipe for nocino, an Italian walnut liqueur, we found ourselves with a pleasant problem: what to do with roughly four gallons of a fragrant amaro with a rich, powerful flavor profile.

Both our households are big on Negronis, and we each began tinkering with the ideal way to work the stuff into our favorite cocktail. Many formulas later, my house has settled on this version, which substitutes nocino for at least part of the sweet vermouth.

We found that nocino’s spice and walnut overwhelmed the drink when we replaced the vermouth one-for-one in a classic Negroni, which is equal parts gin, vermouth and Campari. Halving the amount of nocino gave the cocktail just the right amount of kick without overpowering the other ingredients. Adding back a half-part of vermouth gives it a nice balance, though you may feel differently.

If you don’t want to wait until the Feast of St. John the Baptist to start making your own nocino, you can buy it ready-made at specialty and big-box liquor stores. My brother and I are already planning around next year’s green walnut harvest to replenish our homemade stock.