Rosolio: Scents of Spring - A Delicate Liqueur Recipe

Come spring, roses bloom. They're beautiful to look at, but one can also do more, capturing their essence to enjoy them later in the year. How? By making rosolio, the sweet liqueur enjoyed by the Ladies in the 1800s. And not only; Elisabetta's Uncle Renzo used to tell about loving the beignets filled with rosolio they sold at fairs when he was a boy (early 1900s) -- they were called mangia e be'i, eat n'drink, and half the fun was eating them without squirting the rosolio all over.

Ingredients:

• Roses (see below for amounts)
• Grain alcohol
• Sugar

Preparation:

Gather red roses in perfect bloom during the hottest hours of the day, when their perfume is at its headiest. Pluck the petals, discarding the light-colored rim at the base because it's slightly bitter. Weigh out 1 3/4 ounces (40 g) of petals, put them in a large jar with a vanilla bean, and cover them with a quart (1 liter) of 190 proof (95%) alcohol. Seal the jar and let the contents steep for two weeks. When the two weeks are up, make a syrup by bringing a pound (500 g) of sugar to a boil in 3 1/4 cups (800 ml) of water. Strain the rose petals and vanilla bean out of the alcohol, return the alcohol to the jar, stir in the syrup, seal, and let it all sit for another two weeks, then filter and bottle it.

To be frank, this is going to be rather strong, but it should be quite nice. If you'd rather a weaker drink, use good quality vodka (80 proof, or 40% alcohol) rather than grain alcohol.

Here's another idea, to undertake in the beginning of June, when walnuts begin to develop and their rinds are still full of delightfully flavorful juices: Rosnoce

• 30 rose petals, from bright red flowers in perfect bloom
• 5 green walnuts
• 5 cloves
• 1/2 inch of a cinnamon stick
• The zest of a lemon
• 1 bottle Malvasia Emiliana (a dry white wine from Emilia Romagna)
• 1/4 cup grain alcohol (95%, 190 proof)

Begin by donning gloves and quartering the nuts. Use a non-absorbent chopping board and be careful not to get the juice on anything you care about, because it may be clear as it comes out of the nut, but it rapidly becomes a deep brown walnut stain that simply won't come off.

Put the nuts in a large glass jar with the remaining ingredients, seal the jar, and let everything steep for 40 days, shaking the bottle every now and then. Strain the liquid, run it through a filter paper, bottle it, and age it for 8 months before serving it to your friends.

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