La Festa di San Valentino was a four day affair at Nino’s, culminating yesterday in a Valentine’s Day dinner with live jazz! Our dinners per due–for two–included Parchment Heart Red Snapper with homemade gnocchi in pesto and Crab Cakes and Prosciutto Wrapped Shrimp served with a tart, sweet, fennel and orange salad.

We also featured a delicious Tuscan specialty–Cinghiale–Wild Boar with rosemary ricotta polenta and red swiss chard. And of course, we celebrated the love apple with our classic Spaghetti Pomodoro. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Centerpieces by The Laurel Garden.

A perfect holiday cocktail with a green accompaniment: “The Bartini” and broccolini with tahini.

The Bartini–25% Campari, 25% Limoncello, 50% Prosecco…100% Italian! Garnished with rosemary, this aperitivo (before dinner drink) is red and green not only like the Italian flag but also like Christmas!

Steamed broccolini with a lemon, tahini, and yogurt sauce is a wonderful hors d’oeuvre or side dish. We sprinkled toasted pine nuts as a finishing touch.

Buon Appetito!

Thanksgiving is fast approaching, and the classic flavors of fall abound: chestnut stuffing, apple cider, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie. However, today’s cocktail pays homage to an oft-overlooked autumn flavor: maple.

The “Mapletini” is a simple seasonal cocktail perfect for your pre-turkey line-up; although you might be hard pressed to find the drink’s secret ingredient in your local liquor store. The signature spirit, Sortilege Maple Liqueur, hails from Quebec. We special order it for the bar at Nino’s from one of our wine importers.

Sortilege is a delicious blend of Canadian whisky and Canadian maple syrup. So, in a pinch, you might stir some warm maple syrup with whisky to create your own infusion. The flavor profile is more maple than whisky, so be liberal with your syrup. The vodka added to create the Mapletini will mellow any cloying sweetness.

We chose Stolichnaya vanilla vodka, although different vodkas might yield interesting results. The ratio for the cocktail is 1:1–just half Stoli Vanil and half Sortilege. We chill this ‘tini in a shaker and serve it up in a glass rimmed with cinnamon sugar. A cinnamon stick stirrer or a garnish of vanilla bean would also do the trick.

The Mapletini is great alone or paired with food, and the vanilla-cinnamon-maple notes would work well with both sweet and savory dishes. Since I tend towards savory, how about miniature maple sausage sandwiches with sauteed onion and apple to beginning your Thanksgiving feast?