Limoncello is a classic end-of-the-meal little drink in Italy. A delicious pallet cleanser and wonderful roundoff. The trick with this is the lemon rind which holds the citrus oils and thus the flavour - the same reason we use whole lemons when making our Lemon flavoured olive oil.
Prep Time 5 Minutes
Serves 2
Cook Time 10 days
Difficulty Easy
In Italy, 100% pure alcohol is used as the main ingredient to make limoncello which can be bought from your typical Italian supermarket. Since most of the rest of the world can’t be trusted with such easy-to-access pure liquor (hic), here we have used vodka instead. It’s simple and the results are great.
This makes a great homemade gift and a great way to bring a slice of Italy home. Keep it in the freezer as the Italians do to serve ice cold!
Ingredients
- Lemons – 6 unwaxed
- Vodka, or white spirit – 500ml/17 fl oz
- Sugar – 200g/7 oz
- Water – 200ml/7 fl oz.
Method
- Take six organic unwaxed lemons and wipe them with a wet cloth. Don't wash them as you will be washing away some of the citrus oil which you want to keep for the best lemon flavour in your limoncello.
- Peel off the rind (or zest) with a potato peeler. Try to avoid the including pith (the white part) which is bitter. Put the lemon rind in the vodka and leave for ten days in a dark place. Your limoncello is in the process!
- After ten days, melt the sugar in the water on a low heat, take it off the stove and then mix it with the alcohol and lemon. Wait for it to cool thoroughly, then filter the resulting liquid. You can use a coffee filter for this. Store in the freezer and drink ice-cold.