Limoncello
- Prepare
- overnight
- Cook
- less than 10 mins
- Serve
- Makes 900ml/1½ pint
This delightful, sweet liqueur hails from Italy and is excellent served chilled in small glasses. It's ready in three weeks.
Equipment: You will need a large bottle or jar and a 1 litre bottle (or a selection of smaller ones) for storing/gifting.
By Miriam Nice
Ingredients
- 5 unwaxed lemons, organic if possible
- 500ml/18fl oz vodka
- 300g/10½oz caster sugar
Method
Carefully cut the zest from all the lemons. A small sharp knife is good for this, you want to make sure you don’t cut any of the white pith, just the zest.
Place the zest in a large sterilised jar or bottle and pour over the vodka. Leave for 3 weeks to infuse, give it a shake every day or so and keep it out of direct sunlight.
After 3 weeks put the caster sugar in a saucepan and add 400ml/¾pt water. Heat until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is simmering. Take off the heat to cool.
To complete the limoncello, strain the lemon zest infused vodka so you can discard the zest. Combine the sugar syrup with the infused vodka then pour into sterilised bottles and store in the fridge.
The limoncello will keep for around 2 months, best served well chilled.
Recipe tips
It’s important not to add the white part of the pith from the lemon peel to the infusion, if when you’re cutting strips of zest you get some of the pith don’t worry, just carefully cut it away before using.
We use vodka in this recipe which makes it easy to make at home but the resulting liqueur may not be cloudy as you might typically expect. This is because more traditional methods use a base spirit which is higher in alcohol and therefore extracts more of the oil from the lemon zest. You still get a delicious limoncello from this recipe that's perfect for gifting.
