Super easy and tastes just like the stuff you get in Amalfi or Sorrento, in fact better!

Having traveled the south coast of Italy a couple of years ago I fell in love with Limoncello, that fabulously lemony, sweet, after dinner aperitif. A lot of the Amalfi locals make their own and one who owned a shop gave me this recipe and laughed at my surprise at how easy it looked. I have made it lots and it's great.

There are two parts to this recipe, this first one involves hiding your mix away in a cupboard for four weeks so this is part 1 and in four weeks I will put up part 2!

You will need

5 unwaxed lemons (I use Amalfi lemons)
1 litre of decent vodka (strong as you can get)
1 kilo of white caster sugar
1 litre of water

A large airtight jar to store the fine Italian hooch in.

That's it!!

To make

Using a sharp knife or lemon zester peel the zest from the lemons. Try not to get to much of the white pith in as it's fairly bitter.

A handsome Italiano merrily zesting

Now sterilise your jar, I pour boiling water in and over mine and let sit for ten minutes. You can also wallop it in a hot oven for ten minutes.

Put your freshly peeled zest in the jar and pour your vodka over it.

Put in a cupboard for four weeks, taking it out every few days and giving it a gentle shake.

Can you believe it, that's part 1! All you can do now is wait out that four weeks. This let's the zest infuse the vodka until it's pungently strong.

And after that all that's left is to simmer the sugar in the water and add to the lemony vodka!!

So in 4 weeks you will be drinking this!!

some I made at the start of summer, it's running out!!

I will post this post plus part two in exactly four weeks time and shall insert a video of me sampling the goods too!!

See you in a month!