Mirto… ti voglio bene
Back in 2007 was when my love affair with mirto began, myself and a few friends spent a week on a boat sailing and sampling the delights of the islands within the Pontine archipelago, off the west coast of Italy. We were then to discover how this local elixir surely had become something of an identity to each and every island we set foot upon. Traditionally a favourite of Sardinia, it seemed every island had their own version of the stuff, all with varying degrees of quality it must be said. Mirto is essentially a digestive liqueur, usually served chilled straight from the fridge, and is the result of a maceration of the berries or leaves (or both) of the locally grown myrtle plant. It generally comes in two varieties, rosso (from the berries and usually sweeter) and bianco (from the leaves, a bit drier). After a many filling Italian meal during this trip we all found it was the perfect antidote to feeling normal again, amazingly powerful stuff and certainly worth tracking down if it’s available in your country. Here in Australia it’s not widely available but it can be found, and I’ve enjoyed experimenting with it often as a substitute for sweet vermouth in various recipes. A rum manhattan with Mount Gay XO was a particular stand out, it also adds a whole new complexity to a negroni instead of the said vermouth. Notable brands that are tried and tested have been Zedda Piras and Lucrezior R. Distilleria.
Below is a drink I concocted earlier this year which combined all good things Italian – Sardinian grappa and mirto – more on the naming of the drink later, but for now the recipe…
Battle of Solferino
45ml Ciroc vodka
10ml Sardinian ‘Filu e Ferru’ grappa
5 red grapes
10ml fresh lime juice
10ml agave nectar
mirto foam
muddle grapes with lime and agave, shake/fine-strain to chilled cocktail glass. top with mirto foam
serve with pieces of torrone nougat on the side
*to make the mirto foam I use the following recipe:
6 egg whites, 20ml lemon juice, 20ml simple syrup, 90ml mirto liqueur – place all in a crema cannister and charge with two charges, leave overnight in the fridge and shake well before using
The Battle of Solferino was one of the few battles in the 19th century where actually the French and Italians helped eachother to victor over another. June 24th, 1859 was a day of fierce fighting where a Franco-Sardinian alliance fought off an invading Austrian army attempting to enter Italy from the north, the battle and resulting victory by the alliance was a crucial step in the process of Italian unification. In honour of this piece of military history and the then alliance formed between two great European nations, this drink combines the best of French vodka, Ciroc, with grappa and mirto from Sardinia. The name Filu e Ferru literally translates to iron wire in English, and this refers to those farming Italians who essentially used to manufacture moonshine grappa on their estates. Once they had produced their distillate and to avoid detection and taxes being paid on its production, they would bury it underground, marking its whereabouts with a simple iron wire sticking out of the field in order to find it again… clever and most industrious farmers they were.
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