By Dana McMahan
FoodConnect Louisville
dana@foodconnect.com

If you haven’ tried limoncello yet, it’s high time. And no time better than the dreadfully hot, wilting days of August to meet this cool bliss in a bottle. Though it’s sunshine yellow, limoncello (it’s fun to even say it – Lee-mon-chell-oh) is the ultimate antidote to a hot sunny day.

Invented in southern Italy, Sicily to be exact, limoncello is a simple drink, but a potent after-dinner pleasure. Made from lemon rinds, 100 proof alcohol (like vodka), sugar and water, it provides a way to store a little Italian rapture right in your freezer. I say freezer because limoncello must be served ice cold, preferable in a tiny chilled glass.

I was introduced to limoncello in the best fashion -- by a new Italian friend. While staying in Tuscany a couple years ago with friends, we stopped in for dinner late one night in a tiny hole-in-the-wall pizzeria out in the country. This was no Pizza Hut. Family photos, soccer posters and, how do I say this – posters of scantily clad young ladies adorned the walls of the room.

The chef rolled the dough behind a bead curtain as we watched. After dinner we started talking as best we could with the Italian-only chef, his young friend who spoke some English and his Eastern European wife. Before long the chef disappeared into his back room. We heard his freezer door open and out he came, his prize held aloft – a bottle of limoncello. I loved that first zesty shot. We grinned at our friends – this was one of those times you can’t book through a tourist office for sure!

Though, sadly, I can’t be in Italy all the time I drink limoncello as a way to remind me of the joys, gustatory and otherwise, of the country. I keep it in the freezer for a digestif, or — and this is fun — I add a generous splash to a cold glass of lemonade. If I could get hold of some Sorrento lemons, I’d love to try making it myself.