In short. A hundred black cherry leaves macerated for ten days in a litre of Primitivo di Manduria, then boiled with sugar, filtered, and fortified with alcohol. The only one of these liqueurs built on wine rather than water.
It is a Salento speciality, and the wine in it is not incidental: Primitivo di Manduria is one of the great reds of Puglia, and it gives the amarella its body.
Ingredients
- 100 black cherry leaves, from an untreated tree
- 1 litre of Primitivo di Manduria
- 600 g of sugar
- 500 ml of alcohol
Method
1. Maceration. Leave the cherry leaves to macerate in the wine for about ten days.
2. Boiling. Bring it to the boil with the sugar and cook for ten minutes.
3. Finishing. Filter, let it cool down, and add the alcohol.
4. Waiting. Bottle it and wait at least a month before drinking.
The leaves must be untreated. This is stated explicitly in the recipe, and it applies to every one of these liqueurs: you are extracting directly into something you will drink, with no cooking step in between to help you.
More on the liqueurs page.
