Saturday,
July 15,
Limoncello: A Taste as Sweet as a World Cup
title
The
ANNOTICO Report
Limoncello is a
pretty simple liqueur; there are usually just four ingredients -- lemon peels,
grain alcohol, sugar and water. It's sweet, lemony and packs an unexpected
wallop.
The
secrets of Limoncello is that the lemons are
grown -- on terraces in the steep hillsides, shaded from the sun, the lemons
hang for two seasons (If you don't pick them, they go back to green and then
grow again, and you get these big gnarly lemons, with a lot of skin), and
most important, to carefully peel the lemons to remove all of the bitter, white
pith.
A
TASTE AS SWEET AS A WORLD CUP TITLE
San
Francisco Chronicle
W.
Blake Gray
Staff
Writer
Thursday, July 13, 2006
When life gave
Limoncello is a
pretty simple liqueur; there are usually just four ingredients -- lemon peels,
grain alcohol, sugar and water. It's sweet, lemony and packs an unexpected wallop.
All along the
Amalfi coast, dinner ends with a small glass of limoncello, served straight
from the freezer. It cleanses the palate and raises the spirits -- though a
second glass, especially after wine with dinner, can lead to penitence the next
morning.
"It's so
sweet and good that you think you're drinking lemonade," says Devon Rubin,
a limoncello fan in
A few local
Italian-style restaurants, such as Zuppa in
"We want
everyone to learn about it," says Zuppa owner Mary Manzare. "A lot of
times we just pour it for people at the end of a meal. We like to show it to
people who are really getting into the whole Italian dining experience."
Manzare's own
introduction to limoncello came on the boat she took from
"There was a
truck full of lemon rinds and somebody said they were taking it from
In
Bay Area
restaurateur Pat Kuleto says one of the first things he noticed about the
Amalfi region is how the lemons are grown -- on terraces in the steep
hillsides, shaded from the sun.
"They let
the lemons hang for two seasons," Kuleto says. "If you don't pick
them, they go back to green and then grow again. They get these big gnarly
lemons, with a lot of skin."
Kuleto, like many
Italian-Americans, grew up with limoncello and is proud of his homemade recipe;
he says the secret is to carefully peel the lemons to remove all of the bitter,
white pith.
"You never
see an Italian buying a bottle," says Drew Spaulding, general manager of
PlumpJack wine shop in
Many people make their own here as well, and they may have no more connection
to
Iris Finz, mother
of Chronicle food reporter Stacy Finz, first tried limoncello, homemade, at a
friend's house in
"I've had
lots of different drinks, and this is my favorite," says Finz.
If you don't have
a lemon tree, or prefer not to get into bootlegging, a few good brands imported
from
I prefer Profumi della Costiera limoncello, which is notable for its thin
layer of greenish lemon oil visible atop the liqueur. What's also noteworthy is
the flavor -- you get the sense that you're tasting lemon peel, with its oils,
rather than fruit. The Profumi is one of the least sweet of the commercial
limoncellos; it's the only one PlumpJack's Spaulding sells and the brand most
favored by Zuppa.
"The Profumi
is so much more real," says Zuppa bartender Shane McKnight, who says of
the relationship between Amalfi's bounty of lemons and its limoncello:
"Throughout history, things that are fermented come from excess. People
wonder, 'How can we preserve this?' "
Emperor Augustus
used the name "Apragopolis" for the
The similar Gioia
Luisa Lemoncello (the spellings are interchangeable) is favored by the
If you have a
sweet tooth, Caravella Limoncello Originale is a reasonable introduction; the
sugar content tastes higher than the others, but that's not necessarily bad
considering when limoncello is usually consumed.
"A lot of
times people will say, 'I'm too full for dessert. I'll just have limoncello,' " McKnight says. "That's its role in the
meal."
Kuleto says
limoncello also works well as an accompaniment for dessert because of its
sweetness and its acidity.
"Most drinks
won't hold up to an ultrasweet dessert," Kuleto says. "Limoncello's
fantastic with any kind of fruit dessert -- berry tarts, berry pie. It's
fantastic with lemon meringue pie. It's surprising it's not more popular in
this country."
Rubin says she's
tried many homemade limoncellos, including in
"They're not
expensive," she says. "It's easier to just buy it."
E-mail W.
Blake Gray at wbgray@sfchronicle.com.
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