If you’re ready to take your foraging to the next level, this nocino recipe is for you.
Using wild foraged black walnuts, Chef Michael Hunter shows us how to turn this wild nut into nocino. Nocino is a dark, nutty, bittersweet Italian-style liqueur made from unripe green walnuts. The effort involves delayed gratification: You need to store the infusion for six months. It’s well worth the wait, and makes an extra special gift.
Black walnut trees are common along fence lines, old homesteads, and river bottoms. Use the onX Hunt App to drop a Waypoint when you find a good tree so you can come back for green walnuts at the right stage next season.
- Rubber work gloves
- 2 wide-mouth mason jars, 4-cup / 1 quart each, with lids
- Cheesecloth or coffee filters
- Rubber band or string
- Kitchen knife
- Bottles with corks or twist caps
- Mortar and pestle or spice grinder
- 1 lb / 450 g unripe green black walnuts
- 2 × 26 oz / 750 mL bottles vodka
- 1 tbsp / 15 mL freshly ground espresso beans
- 2 tsp / 10 mL ground cocoa nibs, freshly ground
- 4 whole cloves, freshly ground
- ¼ unpeeled navel orange, cut into 2 wedges
- 2 cups / 500 mL pure maple syrup
- Wearing gloves, cut the green black walnuts into halves with a kitchen knife. Green black walnuts stain skin badly and can leave your hands black for weeks: wear gloves throughout.
- Place the walnuts divided evenly between two 1-quart mason jars.
- Add the vodka, espresso, cocoa nibs, cloves, and orange wedges.
- Screw the lids on tightly.
- Label the container with the date and place it in a cool, dark place, such as a cupboard, basement, or cold cellar. Age for 6 months.
- After the first 24 hours, the liquid will turn a dark yellow-green, then eventually almost black. Early on, it will taste bitter and astringent. Over time, the flavor will soften, deepen, and become smoother.
- After 6 months, strain into a large steel or glass container and stir in the maple syrup.
- Cover the container with 2 layers of cheesecloth or a coffee filter and secure with a rubber band or string. Let the nocino sit and “breathe” for 3 days to 1 week.
- Strain again through a coffee filter into a large bowl.
- Bottle the nocino in wine bottles and seal with a cork or twist cap.
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Store in the fridge or cold cellar.
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Serve chilled, over ice, after dinner, or splashed over vanilla ice cream. Nocino also shines in cocktails, especially a black walnut Manhattan with rye, sweet vermouth, bitters, and nocino.
- 2 oz rye
- ½ oz sweet vermouth
- 1 oz nocino
- 1 dash Angostura bitters
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Orange slice for garnish
Stir or shake, pour over ice, and garnish with orange.
FAQs
Nocino is a dark, bittersweet Italian liqueur made by infusing unripe green black walnuts in alcohol for several months. A great way to make use of your wild-foraged walnuts, nocino is good on its own, poured into coffee, or as a star in cocktails like the Manhattan.
Steep halved green walnuts in vodka with espresso, cocoa nibs, cloves, and orange for six months, then strain, stir in maple syrup, and let it rest before a final strain and bottling. Full instructions in Chef Michael Hunter’s recipe, above.
You want them green and unripe, before the shell hardens. Like with all wild edibles, timing varies by location, but you’ll typically want to think about foraging green walnuts in early-to-mid-summer. The test on timing? If you can still slice straight through the nut with a knife, you nailed it.