Sunday Dish

A few years back Todd and I were lucky enough to spend three amazing weeks in Italy. If you've ever been chances are you've probably sipped on some Limoncello.

It's a lovely lemon liqueur that was most often served after the meal as a "digestivo". So, apparently not only does it taste good it also helps you digest all that pasta you just ate. Bonus!

On more than one occasion we were offered a little sip of it after our meals and learned that although you can buy commercial varieties, many restaurants make there own.

Ever since we got home we promised we'd make our own limoncello. The ingredients are pretty simple: lemon pith, grain alcohol (or vodka if you can't get the "hooch!") sugar and water. That's it. The only difficulty is patience, not my strong suit. The longer you let your brew sit, the better.

We put off the experiment and put it off somemore until we moved into our current home, which, lo and behold, had a lovely and prolific lemon tree. There really was no excuse any longer. So about two months ago we put together our first batch.

Like I said, it's fairly easy to do, but before I go any further, if you intend to try it out on your own, I must give thanks and a link to Limoncello Quest. This is a comprehensive blog on the topic and one I turned to for recipes, tips and more.

The first thing is to get the lemons. If you can get your hands on some from your own or a friends tree it's the way to go. Second best would be a farmers market and last option the regular market. Here's why: you do not want ANY wax left on the skin, and at the major markets they shine those babies up good. For this recipe you are using only the outer skin so you want them to be as clean and crap free as possible. If you do have to get them from the store, just be sure to scrub the living daylights out of them.

I used about 20 lemons from my tree and gave them a good wash. Then using a micro-planer I started zesting. This was a little time consuming because you want to make sure you zest with a delicate hand ensuring none of the white part of the lemon rind gets into your mixture. It's bitter and can ruin the flavor of your brew.

Next it's time to add the booze. We found good old fashioned Everclear. It reminded me of my college days when the frat boys would mix it with lemonade and get all the girls drunk. But seriously this stuff is not to be messed with lightly. Just reading the warning labels on the bottle was enough to scare you off from using the stuff! But, it was the recommended alcohol of choice. Apparently it has no real flavor of it's own. It's pure grain alcohol you can tell by the deceptively cute corn stalk on the front!

From there, we found a large glass container and boiled it, only because in it's previous life it held pickles.

Then we mixed away combining booze and pith. It's that easy. All that was left to do at that point was pop it in the back our our pantry cupboard and wait - six weeks to be exact.

At the six week mark we pulled it out. We made up a batch of sugar water by combining 2 cups sugar mixed with 5 cups of boiling water. Once the sugar water cooled to room temperature we added it to the booze/pith mixture (which is kinda gross and sludgy looking at this point) put the lid back on and stuck it back in the cupboard for another 6 weeks. I told you patience is key here.

Finally about a week ago we realized our six week mark had passed - two weeks before!! At this point it's time for straining. This is the really annoying part because after all that waiting all you want to do is taste!

We purchased a metal coffee strainer just for the occasion. 1st pass was right through the metal strainer. 2nd pass through the strainer lined with paper filter. I highly suggest having something else to occupy you during this period. If you think you're gonna sit there and watch it, good luck. It's a drip, drip, drip kind of thing if you know what I mean. The 2nd pass took about an hour, as did the 3rd which is done in the same way- with a clean filter.

Once the filtration is done it' time to pour it into the bottles. We bought several different sizes: small ones to give as gifts, a medium sturdy size to pop in the freezer and one big daddy that was sort of the inspiration for the whole project and will look quite lovely sitting on the table when guests gather.

"Limoncello Quest" suggests that before trying you should let it rest in the freezer for another week, but my thinking is this: I want to try it now! Besides, if it's going to mellow I'd like something to compare it to. Our first tasting didn't dissapoint - it rocked. I'm thrilled to see how it changes after resting.

We're pretty excited because tomorrow we're having a gathering of family and friends to help celebrate my birthday and they get to be our official Limoncello guinea pigs.

Picture of "My Big Fat Greek Birthday" and Limoncello tasting to follow in the next couple of days. Buon Appetito!