I’d never even heard of mirto until I read Efisio Harris’ Sweet Myrtle and Bitter Honey, which, to my mind, is the best English-language cookbook covering Sardinia — one of my favorite cuisines of Italy. Mirto is a heavy, sweet and herbal liqueur drunk all over Sardinia, at all occasions, much the way ouzo or raki is served in Greece.
With this description, I knew I had to have it. And I finally got my chance at the James Beard Awards in 2010, when I saw it on the menu at Craft, Chef Tom Colicchio’s flagship restaurant. When I took a sip, the liqueur tasted like a combination of gin and Fernet-Branca, another Italian digestif: Resinous, herbal, a little syrupy but very warming, very happy.
So what’s in mirto? Apparently, not much beyond myrtle berries and either honey or syrup. Huh. I can do that. It isn’t too different from my elderberry liqueur, only with myrtle berries. But how would I find this mystical plant?
Myrtle is not the crape myrtle you may be thinking of. Myrtus Communis is “true” myrtle, and it is native to the Mediterranean. Mirto is made from its berries, and there is another drink called mirto bianco made from the flowers. Several years ago I tried to find myrtle — lots of Mediterranean recipes use myrtle’s aromatic leaves and twigs to flavor grilled meats — but had failed.
Apparently I didn’t look hard enough. No one at the nurseries I’d visited knew anything about a “myrtle bush” other than the crape myrtle. But when I thought to ask for Myrtus communis, they all said, “Oh yeah, we got that. It’s used for hedges.” Score! So I bought a bush. But by then the rains had stopped for the summer and, although I tried, my little myrtle bush died. Wah.
Then, one day, while I was at my friend Elise’s parent’s house, I noticed something. Something huge. “Holy shit! That’s a gigantic myrtle bush!” The myrtle bush alongside their house was 12 feet tall and easily 18 feet wide. And covered with blossoms. This bush wouldn’t die, and as I watched the blossoms turn into green berries, and the green berries turn into purple-black berries, I grew anxious.
To make mirto, fill quart mason jars almost full with myrtle berries, then fill the jar with vodka — I like 100-proof because a) I am a well-known boozehound, and b) you get better extraction of an herb’s flavors with the higher alcohol content. Why not use Everclear? I suppose I could, but I’d like to drink this stuff eventually without going blind.
I’ll let my mirto steep for several months, then strain it and sweeten it with honey. It makes a wonderful after-dinner drink on cold winter nights.
John: Myrtus Communis is a common landscaping plant around here. Ask around at major garden stores.
Traditionally, Mirto is flavored with rosemary and gentian root (available on Amazon, but use sparingly, as it’s quite bitter….on the order of grams per liter of liqueur to your taste) . It’s probably the type you had at Craft (Mirto Tremontis from Sardinia)
NotRichard: In addition to the myrtle berries? Thanks for the tip! Can you point me to somewhere I can read more about that?
In Melbourne Australia the Myrtle grows to about 5 meteres and the purple berries are huge. The flowers around Christmas time are white and the bees feast on the pollen. The tree is buzzing. Around April may the berries are ready to pick….you need t pick quick otherwise the pied currawong will eat them all. Not unusual to see 10 currawong eating the berries. If left alone within 3 days your berries are gone. easy to grow from seed and cuttings using high strength root grow hormone. Need lots of water to establish new plants otherwise they dry out and die. They also love being fertilised too