Definition: Limoncello

A recipe from southern Italy, Limoncello keeps well and is best served chilled as a digestif. NB: When we say "from the chemist's", this means you should use pure 90° alcohol and not denatured or camphorated alcohol; chemists stock pure 90° alcohol.

Preparation time: 1 hour

Ingredients (for approximately 2 litres):

- 5 untreated lemons - 1 litre of 90° alcohol (available at the chemist's) - 40 sugar cubes (or equivalent) - 1 litre of water.

Using a vegetable peeler, remove the zest (only the yellow part) from the lemons.

Place it in a container large enough to hold all the ingredients with a little room to spare, and add the alcohol and sugar.

The mixture should macerate for about 21 days, during which time it should be stirred regularly to ensure that the sugar dissolves properly. After this period, boil 1 litre of water and pour it over the mixture while it is still boiling.

Leave to rest for 24 hours, then strain and pour into (attractive) bottles!