When life throws you lemons make limoncello!

The first time I had limoncello (lee-mohn-CHEH-loh) was years ago in Sorrento, a charming sea town on the Amalfi Coast in Italy known for it’s narrow windy roads, beautiful citrus groves, and well, limoncello.

Limoncello is a digestif made from lemon rinds, alcohol, sugar and water. Although it’s made from lemons it’s sweet not sour, since it’s made from the rinds and not the juice. It’s sipped icy cold (but never with ice) after dinner from small glasses.

Not only is limoncello delicious, it’s easy and inexpensive to produce, containing only a few simple ingredients and requiring just a bit of time to mature. Perfect for holiday gifts!

Limoncello

15 lemons
2 (750 ml) bottles minimum 80 proof alcohol (good quality vodka or grappa)
4 cups sugar
5 cups water

Note: If you use Everclear or some more pure alcohol, dilute it to about 40%, the strength of vodka. Below that, it will not properly extract all the oils from the rinds.

Step 1
Wash the lemons with hot water to remove wax; pat dry. Zest the lemons with a zester or vegetable peeler so there is no white pith on the peel. You want to take great care while zesting to make sure you are only getting the outer part of the rind. The pith is too bitter and will spoil your limoncello!

Step 2
Put the peels in a large 1 gallon plus glass jar and add one bottle of alcohol and seal tightly. Leave the jar to steep in a cool, dark place until the peels lose their color, at least 2 weeks.

Step 3
After the initial 2 week resting period, combine the sugar and water in a large saucepan and cook until thickened and clear. Let the syrup cool. Add the syrup and the additional bottle of alcohol to the limoncello mixture from Step 2. Allow to rest for another 10 to 40 days.

Step Four
Strain out the lemon peels through a coffee filter or cheesecloth and pour the limoncello into another container. Press down to remove all the alcohol and oils that you can from the peels before tossing them. Stir the liquid with a clean plastic or wooden spoon. Put the liqueur in clean bottles (I prefer swing top bottles), seal tightly and leave the finished bottles for at least 1 week before using.

Store your limoncello in the freezer to enjoy icy cold – it won’t freeze.

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I’m in Mexico on vacation and have been reflecting on that fact that I’ve spent of about 2 years of my life here altogether….boy has the country changed over those years! When I visited for the first time in the early eighties, I was a high school language student in the colonial town of San Miguel de Allende. Back then, Mexico was suffering from hyper-inflation and almost nothing was imported, so I experienced deep immersion in the traditional foods and drink of Mexico. It was then that I first tried Tequila, which originated in Mexico and still can only be produced here by international accord. Though many Americans are familiar with the drink, few know much about it’s origins in the town of the same name. Even Wikipedia fails to properly explain how it’s made, something I hope to find the time to remedy. A more recent discovery on my part is “Agavero” a sweet tequila liqueur that’s wonderful on the rocks as an after dinner drink.

Rather than give you the a full account of tequila, for now I’m going to content myself with drinking the stuff along with salt and a nice slice of lime. However, if you must know more, here are a few good resources:

http://www.itequila.org

http://www.tequila.net

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