"Lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet,

but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat."

     This time last year I was finishing up my classes in Italy and preparing for the oncoming winter...with alcohol, naturally. I had a rouge bottle of what I think was vodka that I decided to turn into limoncello. Traditionally, the saccharine beverage is made with grain alcohol, but when there's free booze about, you gotta just go with it. It turned out well, but I only made a small dent in it before I had to leave for greener, Scottish pastures. My roommate and her husband were the happy recipients of the bottle. Fast-forward to the present, and a new, smaller jar of limoncello is working away on my counter top.

Limoncello

 The original

New and Improved 

     It's pretty simple to make this spirit. The first step is to gather some organic lemons. I'm normally nut fussy about this, but citrus fruit does undergo a fair amount of pesticide treatments, so it's better to use the organic for this application. For half a liter of vodka, I peeled five lemons, making sure to leave the white pith behind. Next, I mixed the water and the sugar together in a jar until the sugar dissolved. Then I just combined everything together in a sealed jar and began to wait. I would recommend a four week resting period (ours will be ready by Christmas Eve), but if you're in a hurry, I believe two weeks would be enough time to get a similar effect. Chill the limoncello before serving and store it in the refrigerator for future imbibing. 

Recipe

500ml vodka

1 c water

1 c sugar

5 lemons, peeled