Real Deal Limoncello

Real Deal Limoncello! 

This recipe comes courtesy of Cooking Vacations and Lauren who was given this recipe from her friend Antoni0.

Limoncello is an authentic elixir that is suitable as an aperitif, a digestivo, or as an evening drink with friends.  The ingredients for Limonello are simple and few, and making a batch does not require much work.

If you are trying this recipe and aren’t living in Positano than I suggest, as a first step, washing the lemons you buy from the store in vegetable and fruit wash thoroughly.  You want to remove all of the waxy coating on it so that it looks good on the shelf at the store.  That is the major difference between food in Italy and the U.S.  In Italy food is judged by how it tastes, not how it looks.  You’ll rarely, if ever, find any produce with wax or a shining agent on it.

5 organic lemons (thoroughly washed)

2 cups of everclear

2 cups of sugar

2 cups of water

Take a large glass jar with a sealable lid.  Wash the lemons and pat them dry.  Remove the zest with a potato peeler.  Take only the skin leaving the pith (the white stuff between the skin and the fruit of the lemon).

Fill the jar with the everclear and drop in the skin of the 5 lemons you have peeled.  Seal the jar and store in a cool, dry place.  Every day pick up the jar and swirl it around.  After 6 days (it can go as long as 14, but no longer) you combine it as follows:

Bring the water to a boil and add the sugar.  Melt it to a simple sugar.  Let it cool to room temperature.  Pour into the glass jar with the lemons and everclear.  Swirl around.  Then strain into a bottle. 

Store it in the freezer and enjoy ice cold.

Thank you Lauren and Cooking Vacations.  

Check out the video on www.howtotouritaly.com on how we made Limoncello from the Cooking Vacations balcony overlooking Positano…amazing.

You’ll also learn a thing or two about those huge “lemons” you see in the Amalfi Coast.