It all began on a Thursday in September when I posted the following:
Charles and I are flying to Sicily for our son’s wedding. Matthew and Alison will be married in Siracusa. Sicily is known for its lemons and also for Limoncello – a lemon flavored liquor server over crushed ice.
I met a woman at the farmers’ market last week and she said the most difficult part of making Limoncello is the waiting. It takes at least two weeks between step one and step two. A perfect recipe for me since I will be far away from my kitchen for two weeks. Here’s the first step.
Limoncello – Part 1
I put the zest of eight lemons into a fifth of cheap 100 proof vodka. Her recipe specified ‘cheap’ vodka because it would have no flavor. I used a micro plane to grate the lemon zest and poured two tablespoon of the vodka down the drain so that there would be space for the zest in the bottle. The zest and vodka need to wait in the dark for at least two weeks before the mixture is strained and sweetened. I’ll post the second part of her recipe when I have returned from Sicily where I will have done some Limoncello tasting.
This is the post that finishes the story.
The wedding was perfect. The bride radiant, the groom beamed, Ho-hee friends smiled, family delighted, children gorgeous, food amazing, Siracusa gorgeous!
Rather than two weeks, the vodka and zest waited two months. Here’s how I did it:
Limoncello – Part 2
I used a fine strainer to remove all of the zest from the vodka. To transform the liquid from lemon vodka to limoncello I added a simple syrup that consisted of 350 ml/ 1 1/2 cups water and 400 g/ 2 cups of sugar that had been simmered together for five minutes and then cooled to room temperature.
Decanted into an old fashioned bottle with a leak-proof stopper, the limoncello is waiting in the freezer until the newlyweds arrive.
To receive an email notification of my next post, click here and subscribe to the newsletter from Carol’s Kitchen.
Limoncello List
- 8 lemons
- fifth 100 proof vodka
- 2 c sugar
I love lemons in nearly everything. If this works well my poor neighbors will no longer be getting extra lemons but they can come have a drink with me.
Thank you, thank you, thank you
Wonderful! I’m putting it on my to do list
Enjoy Siracusa!
I think this limoncello is better than any I had in Sicily. I washed the lemons with grapefruit seed oil and water before I used a micro plane to zest them. Good luck and cheers.
Making limoncello looks like a lot of fun. Your site is beautiful!
It was very easy. Although the color wasn’t as bright as I had expected the flavor is terrific. Thanks for your kind words and for leaving a comment.
Oh man, Carol!
I have never had the pleasure of having fresh limoncello (I live in Canada, have not been to Italy yet, and I currently have a bottle here at home but it is from the local liquor store chain). Yours looks AMAZING!
Enjoy and have fun at your son’s wedding!
Thanks for visiting my site. Actually the wedding was in September but I will be living, eating, writing and blogging from Siracusa from the middle of February through the middle of April.
If you like limoncello I do recommend making it. It is much less expensive and much more tasty than the ‘store bought’ variety.