We asked, and a resounding 100% of responders said “Si!!” (yes!!) to wanting to learn how to make homemade limoncello! So here you have it—the recipe! Now, I truly cannot take any credit for this one. It’s all Joe. And while it may seem like a labor of love since it takes a full month to make, it really is SO EASY and you can do it too.
We first had homemade limoncello when we were in Sicily. After finding my relatives, we became adventurous and decided to drive to the town where Joe’s family is from, thinking we might meet some of his relatives too, just by popping in. Malvagna was nearly three hours from where we started in Castelbuono, and it was a treacherous drive. Up mountains, down into valleys, along winding roads—we saw a ton of wildlife on the way. From sheep and cows grazing in the mountains, to literally stopping our car and letting a family of chickens cross the dirt road as we drove into town, we thought to ourselves—“Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore”…or Italy/Sicily as we had known it up until then. As we pulled into town, we saw a woman outside her home and I asked if we could park in front of her house. “Certo,” she responded— which means “of course.” And with her warm smile and inviting demeanor, I felt comfortable telling her that we were looking for the Trapanotto family and thought maybe she could help. “Ohhh Signora Trapanotto, si!”
So we follow her to Signora Trappanotto’s home. She knocks on the door, explains our situation, and sadly says she could not be a relative because she has no family in the United States. But, she invited us into her home anyway and said there is another Signora Trapanotto who she said she’d call for us. Perhaps we are related to her. And here we are, in a perfect stranger’s house, with our new friends who have now become our adopted family: on a mission to find our Trapanottos. Signora Trapanotto lets me use her bathroom and then pours us a glass of fresh limoncello each. And WOW, you can totally taste the difference. Everything we ever thought about limoncello, was totally changed after having the real stuff.
Ever since then, we always dreamed of making our own, and Joe made it a reality. We’d love to share it with you. Inspired by Pasquale Sciarappa’s recipe (see HERE for link to his video) to which we made some minor tweaks.
INGREDIENTS:
-6 lemons (you’re only going to need the peels, not the inside of the lemon)
-1 1/4 cup of Everclear (essential to use Everclear instead of regular vodka in our opinion)
-3 cups of water
-1 1/4 cup of sugar
INSTRUCTIONS:
-Peel lemons into strips and place the strips into a glass airtight jar (you will not need the actual lemon, just the skin)
-Pour the Everclear into the jar, mix together and seal shut
-Date the top of your jar
-Place the jar in a cold, dark place for 30 days (we keep ours in the closet in our basement)
-After 30 days, boil the 3 cups of water
-Add the sugar and mix until melted
-Cool water/sugar mixture
-Strain lemon peels from your glass jar into the water/sugar mixture
-Mix together, chill and enjoy!
SALUTE! Xo
PS- If you’re curious how the Malvagna story ended, we met THREE Signora Trapanottos that day, who we are not directly related to. We have stayed in touch with the second Signora Trapanotto, who helped connect us to family outside of Malvagna, in Mojo Alcantara. It turns out, we are distantly related to her!! This made us so happy, since we spent all day with her. She took us into her home, brought us to church to meet the priest and drove us around town so we could see Malvagna through her eyes. We are forever grateful to her and hopeful that we will see her again soon.
