The second one includes cocktails created by the three celebrity mixologists who visited Friuli and Nonino in October 2011.

We were in the foyer of a theater. They pointed Marcello Mastroianni out to me. I wanted to meet him. I walked over to him.

“You are an exceptional man,” I said, “please allow me to introduce myself: my name is Giannola Nonino.”

“Nonino, the grappa?” he asked. “I’m the one who should bow before such talent.”

And he actually bowed, right there, in front of everyone. And he kissed my hand.

Now can you see why I love my job so much? It fills me with stupendous emotion.

Image via Matteo Tilley.

Photo via The Huffington Post. Text via Urban Daddy.

Cancel all lunch plans and make way for Liquor-Infused Panini from Salumè, just a few Italian sandwiches that also happen to be sauced up, available now.

This was inevitable. The polygamous marriage of mortadella, cave-aged cheeses you’ve got to pronounce in a hearty Italian accent and the distinct taste of the grappa dripped over the meat. Yes, dripped over. It’s not some complicated process of slow-cooking that burns off all the good stuff. They simply take a medicine dropper and make your sandwich alcoholic.

You’ve got a few options here. They’ve got one with Surryano ham and rye, and another with prosciutto, beets and scotch. There’s a crudo prosciutto with gin. Just taking home a couple pounds of the drizzled meat is another way to go. (Nothing goes with Kraft singles like gin-drizzled prosciutto.)

You’ll notice the booze more in some sandwiches than others, which obviously means that you’ll have to keep returning until you’ve viewed, wafted and expertly tasted each and every one.

Click here to continue reading…

Click here for the recipe…

Elisabetta Nonino and Distilleria Nonino are featured in the June issue of Wine Spectator: “A Grappa Convert” by Jack Bettridge.

Click here to download a printable (PDF) version of the article.

Above: The Renaissance Torre dell’Orologio (Clock Tower) in the town of Finale Emilia, the epicenter of the 6.0 earthquake Sunday in Emilia-Romagna.

“Firefighters, surveyors, engineers and volunteers struggled through nearly continuous aftershocks on Monday,” wrote Elisabetta Provoledo in yesterday’s edition of The New York Times, “to catalog damage and deter looters one day after an earthquake killed 7 people and left more than 6,000 homeless in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy.”

“More than 120 aftershocks rocked the area in the hours following the magnitude-6.0 earthquake, which toppled factories, apartment buildings, and medieval and Renaissance monuments early Sunday.”

Our hearts and prayers go out to the people of Finale Emilia and the region of Emilia-Romagna…

Of course, the news of the Emilia-Romagna quake brings to mind memories of the tragic 1976 earthquake in Friuli where 989 people were killed, 2,400 injured, and 157,000 were left homeless.

The audio in the video below comes from a young man who happened to be recording an LP record on cassette tape using a microphone when the earthquake occurred. Even after the needle jumped from the vinyl, the microphone continued to record the event.

Perhaps because of the recent craze of Japanese cuisine in Italy, crudo has become increasingly popular there.

In Friuli, they’ve served crudo long before anyone in Italy made hamachi or swordfish “carpaccio.”

Traditionally, crudo is served in Friuli in its purest form: crudo, in other words, raw: no salt, no seasoning, no frills, no affectation (like the langoustines from the Gulf of Trieste above).

If anything, crudo is accompanied by a lemon wedge and a glass of [Tocai] Friulano or Ribolla.

When you visit the Nonino distillery during grape harvest, you can smell the aroma of grape pomace as it arrives from the family’s partner-wineries.

“It’s all about the freshness of the pomace,” said Elisabetta Nonino (in the photo above) when we visited last October. “That’s the key to freshness in the grappa and aromatics that are true to the grape variety.”

Historically, the Nonino family has been the author of two major innovations in the production of fine grappa.

The first was that the family convinced grape growers and winemakers to keep the grape varieties separate. This allowed the distillery to make the first monovarietal grappa. In doing so, they were able to deliver a distilled expression of the grape that was true to the aromatic and flavor profile of the variety.

The second was the fact that, instead of waiting for the growers and winemakers to deliver the pomace, the Nonino family members went themselves to pick up the pomace as soon as the grapes had been pressed for vinification. At the time, the notion of treating pomace with such care was unthinkable. Today, thanks to the Nonino family, it is common operating procedure for all of Italy’s top distillers.

Friuli is a region with an especially rich culinary tradition. One of the undisputed stars of the cucina friulana is frico. Historically, these hearty snacks were sent out into the field with farm workers and woodsmen. They kept well, and provided a substantial and nutritional meal.

Frico, in short, is pan-fried cheese. Montasio of medium age is thinly sliced and put in a pan with oil, butter, and/or lard then browned on both sides until crunchy. This style of frico is popular as an aperitivo or can be used to create an edible basket for any number of stuffings. Pliable when hot, it crisps up as it cools and can keep for days.

This is the basic frico, but there are as many variations as there are valleys in Friuli. The two most common are frico with potatoes and frico with onions. These types can be thicker with golden crusts around the outsides and a warm, gooey center. One can imagine the goodness in that!

The dish goes back at least to the fifteenth century, when it was recorded in the famous Maestro Martino cookbook. As with many dishes of the day, it combined the savory with the sweet by dressing it with cinnamon and sugar. While this preparation is no longer in use, the classic frico is still enjoyed in homes and restaurants all over the region.