Capellini with Apple and Brandy

This dish was served to me by the mother of a schoolmate from Bassano del Grappa. She named the recipe after her hometown to remind the cook that to make the dish authentically one must use Bassano’s most famous product—grappa brandy. It is now possible to find this potent drink in the United States, but you can also use cognac. Bassano, in the province of Vicenza, also produces fine pottery and excellent Asiago cheese. It was the birthplace of Jacopo da Ponte, the sixteenth century artist