Christmas – Limoncello

Limoncello is a liqueur from the Sorrento region of Italy. It relies on the fragrance and flavour of organically grown lemons to impart vodka or grain-alcohol with a luscious and refreshing  fragrance. In turn, it provides a brilliant accent to a hot summer afternoon. I love it, well chilled from the freezer, mixed with mineral water and some crushed fresh raspberries for a completely over-the-top celebratory tipple. What’s your favourite way to enjoy it?

You could buy it of course, but now is the time to make it if you want to enjoy it at Christmas. This will give you 1.5 litres, or two 750ml bottles of booze. You can easily decant it into pretty smaller bottles and hand them round as gifts. If you’re lucky, your happy friends will open the bottle and share it with you. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

If you make it, use the best, most unblemished specimens from the lemon tree in your back yard. It’s likely they will be more organic than anything you can buy in the shops, and it’s important they are unwaxed. If you buy your lemons from the supermarket, give them a warm bath in the sink and scrub them well with a stiff brush before drying them thoroughly and proceeding with the recipe.

Makes 1.5 litres of limoncello

INGREDIENTS

8 lemons, unwaxed, unblemished; 1 x 750 ml bottle vodka; 500g sugar; 600ml water

METHOD

Wash the lemons in a sink of hot water and scrub them well. Dry them thoroughly.

Use a microplane grater or the smallest holes of a grater to remove the zest from the lemons. Do this on a sheet of greaseproof paper or foil so you catch all the peel if you’re messy like me. Do not grate the lemons all the way to the pith – you want just the outer, oily, fragrant, layer of peel.

Place all the grated zest into a clean airtight 1.5L jar. Add half the bottle of vodka and stir well, then seal and place in the back of a dark cupboard for at least 30 days. Yes 30 days. 40 days is even better, but this is christmas and we can’t wait until Australia Day.

*Squeeze out the juice from the lemons and freeze it in ice-cube trays, then store the cubes in a ziplock bag in the freezer for use in your next recipes.

After 30 days, take out the lemon-vodka mixture.

In a saucepan over high heat, stir the sugar and water together and boil for 5 minutes. Let the sugar syrup cool completely in the pan, about 15 minutes. Add the sugar syrup to the lemon-vodka mixture along with the remaining half bottle of vodka. At this stage the colour of the limoncello could be a little ordinary, but the next 40 days will improve both colour and clarity of the liqueur.

Stir well to combine. Seal the jar and return it to the dark cupboard and store for another 40 days. (which should take you up to the week before Christmas)

Remove the limoncello from the cupboard. Line a funnel or sieve with two clean chux cloths (open-weave cloths, or muslin) and place the funnel over a large bowl. Strain the mixture and discard the lemon peel. Replace the cloths with two more clean cloths and strain the mixture a second time to completely remove any impurities, then pour into hot, sterilised decorative bottles.

Seal, label and store the bottles in a dark cupboard. When you want to drink limoncello, don’t forget to place a bottle in the freezer for a good two hours until the liqueur is chilled completely.

COST

Approximately $28-30 for two 750ml bottles depending on cost of vodka.