By special request, here's my Limoncello recipe

I've been making Limoncello for a good few years now after I was given a complimentary glass in an restaurant in a small town in Umbria.  The owner served it to us straight out of the freezer and the bottle had ice on the sides so heaven only know what the strength was (beware if you're driving, especially in Italy!!!), however it was delicious so when I found a recipe for it I had to try it.  This is my version, there are no extra herbs, just the gorgeous lemon flavour.  I hope you enjoy it if you try some yourself.

Ingredients:

1 wide preserving bottle such as a Kilner jar, it must be able to hold 1.5 litres of liquid!
6 unwaxed lemons
1 bottle of  Vodka - the real deal uses pure alcohol but I can't get that.
225g caster sugar
500ml bottled water

Method

Wash the lemons and dry them.  Next remove all the rind from the lemons making sure you don't get any of the pith as it makes it taste medicinal.  I use one of these tools for this as it produces lovely thin slices of rind so lots of lemon flavour is steeped into the vodka.

Once you've got all the rind off you'll have a pretty good plateful of lemon rind and six bald lemons :)  I juice the lemons and keep the juice in the 'fridge as I use it for bread to keep it fresher longer, but you could also slice the lemons and keep them in an airtight container in the fridge for the G&T's or even candy them if you want to add to the Limoncello.  So, to return to the recipe, you'll have a plateful of lemon ruind something like this:

 Now you need to prepare the Kilner jar.  I do this by boiling a full kettle of water and adding it to the jar, making sure the hot water touches all parts to sterilize the bottle - be careful you don't scald yourself though as the water is very hot and tends to build up a slight head of steam!  Alternatively you can put the jar into a hot oven for 20 mins to sterilize it, but make sure you leave it to cool thoroughly and take the rubber seal off too or you'll ruin your oven :)  Once the Kilner jar is sterilized and cooled, add the lemon rind and pour in the vodka:

Leave this for 21 days in a cool, dark place (I add a reminder to my phone otherwise I forget!).  Next, put the sugar in a saucepan with the water, bring it to the boil and dissolve all the sugar.  Leave it to cool and when cold add it to the Vodka and lemon rind, strain the mixture into sterilized bottles (I reuse a couple of wine bottles washed and sterilized as above) and leave for a further 7 days in a cold, dark place.

Once the 7 days is up, server cold or even frozen as an aperitif or an after dinner drink.  You could also try adding a shot of Limoncello to a glass of Prosecco at Christmas for a nice Christmas aperitif.