As I promised in my last post, today I’m going to reveal to you Ines’ secret recipe for il Bargnolino. Bargnolino is our local name (Valdantena near Pontremoli) for Prugnolino, a liqueur made with le bacche di prugnolo = blackthorn berries or sloes.

The Latin name for prugnolo (the accent is on the first ‘o’, i.e. prugnòlo) is Prunus Spinosa, and it’s a very common plant here in Lunigiana, northern Tuscany, where it grows wild on the edges of meadows and footpaths. The plant is a bush or a small tree up to 3-4 metres high, with small oval leaves. The dark bluish berries are small and roundish, about the size of a small olive, and are not very nice to eat as they have an extremely bitter taste. In Italian we say  “legano i denti” (literally: they tie your teeth) or “allappano la bocca”: allappare is a specific verb which describes the sensation created in your mouth when you bite a very sharp or unripen fruit such as a lemon or a sloe, i.e. they make your mouth pucker up. However, blackthorn berries make an excellent liqueur which can be drunk in small quantities as an aperitif or a digestive. Le bacche are ready to be picked around October-November time, but be warned, il prugnolo has incredibly long sharp thorns, which make picking the berries a rather painful task, as I can personally testify after going to collect them in order to make my own Bargnolino, feeling inspired by Ines’ very special ‘brew’.

Here is Ines’ personal recipe, which includes some unexpected ingredients you won’t normally find in recipes for Prugnolino or Bargnolino, i.e. lemon rind and coffee grains:

Preparation:

Carefully wash and dry the berries, then put them in a big demijohn or other large glass container which can be sealed, filled with the alcohol. Add the coffee grains and the lemon rind, making sure you use only the outer aromatic yellow part and not the white inner layer which is too bitter. Leave the container for 40 days in a dark, dry place, shaking it occasionally every few days. After 40 days dissolve the sugar in the wine and then add it to the mixture of alcohol and sloes. Leave to macerate for a further 10-15 days, then filter and bottle.

Most recipes say that you should leave it to mature for another 6 months before drinking the Bargnolino, but I don’t think I’ll be able to resist it for that long!