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Drinks Gluten free Vegetarian

Our Limoncello Liquor Home Made with Lemons from Sorrento

How to prepare the real Italian recipe of one of our best southern liquors: “Limoncello”

Limoncello liquor was born in the early 1900s on the Amalfi Coast and from there it has spread all around the world! Sorrento, Amalfi and Capri claim it’s paternity. Limoncello is a grat digestive after a meal, often served very cold. Someone prefers it mixed with tonic water or even champagne. The yellow and wrinkled lemon skin is the essential ingredient of this recipe: Limoncello di Sorrento. Limoncello was created with a genuine recipe: lemon peel, enriched with water, alcohol and spoonfuls of sugar. For this you need the best quality of Lemons available, better if organic, and if you can find the Lemons from Sorrento, big and juicy with a thick peel and amazing aroma, that would be absolute perfection!

Ingredients

  • 8 Lemons
  • 8 Lemons Leaves
  • 1 Lt  of natural Water
  • 700 grams of Sugar
  • 1 Lt of  grain Alcohol ( Everclear or similar, also known as rectified spirit-as long as it’s potable, strong, and unflavored you’ll be fine)

Preparation

  1. Wash well the lemons under running water and scrub thoroughly. Peel the lemons and use only the peel for this recipe.
  2. Add the lemon peel into a jar (to be hermetically closed) with 700 cl of alcohol, close hermetically  and let it sit for a month in a dark and dry place. After a month of rest resume the jar with alcohol that in the meantime, will have acquired a light yellow color.
  3. Put a pan on the fire with water and sugar without boiling. Let the sugar syrup obtained cool, then pour into the jar with alcohol and add another 300 cl of alcohol. After another 40 days of rest in a dark and dry place, take out the jar, filter the alcohol, remove the peels of lemon and add it to a nice bottle of choice. Done!

Posted by Nicoletta and Tiziana

The Real Italian Food. Buon Appetito!

limoncello

Categories
Basic Preparations or How To Breakfast Drinks Vegetarian

Anyone for a great Coffee? How to make Coffee with a Moka in easy steps

How to prepare the real Italian Coffee with Moka or “Caffè Espresso con la Moka”

What are the secrets of preparing the best coffee with a classic Moka? The Neapolitans are the best when it comes to coffee and there is so much to learn about the different ways to prepare it. The classic “na tazzulella e café” (literally: a little cup of coffee) is an important part of the inalienable Neapolitan lifestyle, typical food and drinking habits. A great Coffee is always the perfect fit: a waking up MUST HAVE in the morning, the classic excuse for a work break, an after lunch essential, the first drink offered to welcome a guest or to family and friends, anyone loved. Italian coffee simply represents – in Italy and abroad – a symbol at the root of our Italian culture. Neapolitans do it better!!!! 🙂

Ingredients for a 3-cup of Coffee maker /small size

  • 3 teaspoons of Grounded Coffee (we like Vergnano or Illy Coffee)
  • Natural Water, we use bottled natural water if in doubt of the tap water quality

Preparation

  1. One rule: You can’t make a good coffee if you don’t have the best quality of the key ingredient: coffee. So the first step is to buy a great mix of grounded coffee. You will have 3 pieces in a Moka machine: base, filter, top.
  2. Fill the base of the Moka with cold water up to the level of the valve and not beyond. Water will affect the taste of your coffee, we often avoid tap water.
  3. Insert the filter on top,  should be just above the water level, add the coffee on top with a teaspoon, coffee is flattened with the teaspoon (do not compress it) being sure to make a few small furrows in the mixture. The coffee should be fully covering the 2 cm above the filter, do not press it in too much or the water will not pass through.
  4. Now you can add the top part of the Moka. Tightly screw the two parts together and put the coffee maker on the stove. Important Step: Keep the heat low.
  5. Once the coffee starts coming out, open the lid to avoid condensed water to drop in.  If you wish, you can take a coffee cup and place it on top of the spout imprisoning the aroma and fragrance of coffee in the cup.
  6. When the coffee level is at about 3/4 of the top part of the Moka turn off the fire completely and wait until it stops dropping. Enjoy super hot.

TIPS:

  • If you want a perfect coffee,  you can pre-heat the coffee cups for 1 minute in the microwave and then pour the coffee in, it will keep it extra hot!
  • COFFEE CREAM: for the perfectionists only, when the coffee starts to come out take the first drops and put them in a separate cup, add 3-4 teaspoons of sugar and blend them until you have a homogeneous creamy mix, add it on top of the coffee in each cup before serving instead of sugar. TOP!
  • Never wash the coffee maker Moka in a washing machine or with soap, just wash it with hot water!

Posted by Nicoletta and Tiziana

The Real Italian Food. Buon Appetito!

caffe 3