Meyer Lemon Limoncello

I can't remember the exact time and place I first has Limoncello, but I'm pretty sure it was within the first month of the year that I spent living in Florence. I remember one evening I had gone out with a group of friends to celebrate someone's birthday. It was a nice restaurant, though nothing over the top. What stood in my mind, however, was how after the dinner the restaurant sent down complimentary glasses of limoncello and grappa. (This by the way, is a custom I think should be adopted in America!) It's an extrememly strong and fragant drink that left a lasting impression while also the lesson that one does not "shoot" limoncello (though it does come in shot glass). Limoncello is a digestivo that is to be sipped after dinner as to aid in digestion.


If any of you reading this are unfamiliar with the drink, limoncello is an Italian lemon liqueur mainly produced in Southern Italy, predominately in the region around the Gulf of Naples, the Sorrentine Peninsula and the coast of Amalfi, though served throughout the country. It is bright yellow in color, sweet and lemony, but not sour since it contains no lemon juice. As I mentioned above, it is traditionally served chilled as an after dinner digestivo.

But what really makes this drink great is that unlike many other liqueurs, limoncello is easy and inexpensive to produce, requiring only sugar, water, lemon zest, alcohol, and time to mature.

Ingredients:

• 20 lemons - clean, unwaxed with nice plump skins. Try to get organic fresh lemons when you can so it doesn't have an added wax layer to the lemons. Remember you'll be drinking this! Luckily, I'm in California where it's common to find lemon trees. My coworker was kind enough to donate her Meyer Lemons. If you can find someone with a tree, this is your best (and most affordable) option.
  
• 2 (750-ml) bottles Everclear or pure grain alcohol. Everclear is good for two reasons - it's pure alcohol meaning it's got a high proof and it has no other underlying flavor or added sugar. If you can't find Everclear, try a clear alcohol with as high of a proof as you can find. 80-proof isn't quite enough as the solution will be come diluted with simple syrup.
• 2 to 3 cups of water
• 2 to 4 cups sugar (a 1:1 ratio of sugar to water makes a classic simple syrup, but use more sugar if you want yours a little thicker or sweeter)

For this recipe you also need a large (2-3 liter) glass jar with a sealed lid. The jar should be washed and rinsed very well or sterilized. You don't want anything in your limoncello but what you put there. I use an old-fashioned sun tea jar. Because it isn't quite air tight I covered it with plastic wrap.

You will also need the bottles you want to put the final brew in. I bought some French lemonade to drink and saved the bottles for this purpose.

Step 1: lemon in alcohol

1. Wash and dry the lemons. Only use the ones without blemished peels or pare off any spots and the stems, ends.
2. Remove the peel from the lemons with a sharp peeling knife, carefully avoiding the bitter white pith. If you choose to peel your lemons, please note that if any white pith remains on the back of a strip of peel, scrape it off. If you get any of the white part in the batch, the limoncello will be bitter and you don't want that! This is the time consuming part, but avoid the temptation to rush.
3. Put the peels in a glass jar and add the Everclear, leaving at least two inches below the top rim. Seal tightly.
4. Leave the lemons to steep in the jar in a cool, dark place until the peels lose their color, at least 4 weeks. I left mine for roughly 3-4 months. Every couple of weeks I swirl the peels around in the jar to mix up the oils in the alcohol.

Step 2: make the simple syrup and add it.

1. Put the water and sugar in a saucepan, stir and slowly heat until it turns clear and all the sugar is dissolved completely. Let the syrup cool.
2. Put the cooled syrup in the jar with the lemons (you might have to divide the batch into two jars at this point, depending on the size of your jar).
3. Put the jars back in the closet for at least two weeks. Longer is fine too.

Step 3: strain and bottle


1. Strain out the lemon peels through a colander, coffee filter or cheesecloth and pour the limoncello into another container. Press down to remove all the vodka and oils that you can from the peels before tossing them in the trash. As you will notices, just like the picture above, the rinds will have become a very pale yellow.
2. Stir the liquid with a clean plastic or wooden spoon.
3. Put the liqueur in clean bottles and seal tightly.

For best flavor and drinking it straight, store the limoncello in your freezer. It shouldn't freeze (unless you used 80-proof vodka) because of how much alcohol is in it. It'll become thick and syrupy. A perfect end to a hot summer day.


Delicious Uses for Limoncello:

* straight up frozen in limoncello shot glasses
* spiking a tall glass of cold lemonade or iced tea
* splashed in glasses of champagne
* over ice cream or angel food cake
* splashed on a fresh fruit mixture
* in sparkling water, tonic or soda.


Cin cin!
– Lindsay