It is the traditional hospitality gesture in Tramonti and in Amalfi Coast: offering a small glass of homemade liqueur.
A dark, quite thick, sweet and spicy liqueur, with a particular and unique taste. A concerto of tastes is the definition used for centuries to describe it, from which the Coast’s most famous liqueur name is derived, after the Limoncello, the Concerto precisely. Its origin is in Tramonti, in the kitchen of the Conservatory of the Saints Giuseppe and Teresa in Pucara, where the recipe of what the nuns had created as a medicinal liqueur was developed. It was for the conservatory guests. A recipe with several ingredients such as cinnamon, star anise, coriander, juniper berries, red sandalwood, calamus, liquorice, fennel, cloves, nutmeg, edelweiss and pennyroyal. With coffee and barley, added after the usual forty days maceration of herbs and spices. The doses added are a family secret because everyone keeps its ancient recipe transmitted from generation to generation. The preparation to obtain that liqueur with digestive properties is long, also used for the preparation of chocolate aubergines, a typical dish of Ferragosto (15th of August public holiday). On the Coast, the Concerto can be bought in bottles or in pharmacies, as a mixture of herbs and spices to use for domestic preparation.
