Re-creating a family tradition one walnut at a time

Fifty years ago my great-grandfather Carlo Portolan hauled down from the roof of his Lincoln Heights home a glass jug full of fragrant black booze, warm from 40 days in the sun. Nocino, pronounced no-CHEE-no, shows up in written records as early as the Renaissance, where 16th-century physicians raved about a “water of walnuts” that “cooleth the pestilence.” You can buy it today at big-box liquor stores or make your own if you’re feeling crafty. A 21st century batch of nocino made by siblings Corinne and Mike Purtill, re-created from their great-grandfather’s recipe. “I remember it giving me a warm feeling all the way down.” Mine wasn’t the only family in Lincoln Heights with homemade spirits perched safely on the roof. “This looks like my family’s recipe,” said Marianna Gatto, executive director of the Italian American Museum of Los Angeles, scanning Noni’s handwritten instructions in her office off Olvera Street.