Pucker up!
Limoncello fest returns to Pittsburgh
Anyone who’s ever been lucky enough to travel to Italy’s Amalfi Coast leaves remembering two things: the spectacular views from the tiny towns of Positano, Praiano and Ravello perched high above the Gulf of Naples, and the icy, citrusy liqueur poured after every meal.
It’s called limoncello (pronounced lee-moan-CHEH-lo), and it’s made from the softball-sized lemons from the terraced groves that stretch up the hillside and ripened to perfection under the Mediterranean sun.
Sweet and highly alcoholic, limoncello is offered up as a digestif to help diners process all that wonderful pasta they’ve just eaten, and as a way to keep everyone laughing and talking at the table.
Limoncello is one of the best traditions of Italian hospitality, not to mention a taste of Italian sunshine.
But what if your summer travel plans don’t include jetting off to the Amalfi Coast? You can play pretend at the second Festa Di Limoncello at Vallozzi’s Pittsburgh on Fifth Avenue, Downtown, on June 30. Along with Italian street foods and the restaurant’s signature pizza made with a family recipe sauce, the afternoon fest will feature more than a dozen housemade limoncellos that include unexpected flavors like cranberry in addition to the traditional lemon variety flavor.
Julian Vallozzi, who opened the upscale Italian restaurant off Market Square in 2012 as a sister restaurant to the long-established Greensburg Vallozzi’s, came up with the idea for the fest last year to give customers one more way to enjoy the drink. Vallozzi’s had recently started making a variety of limoncellos in house, and it was going over really well. “So we wanted something extra to celebrate,” he says.
For that first batch he sourced the real deal ingredient — juicy sfusato
sorrentino, grown only in Sorrento. Like the ones sold by the roadside in Italy, Mr. Vallozzi recalls, the fruits were huge, almost the size of cantaloupes. Yet they are nearly impossible to find in the U.S. So the restaurant has settled for a little less authentic fruit — California lemons.
Making a really good limoncello, says bar manager Julia Wood, isn’t so much about finding real Italian lemons as it is about taking your time. After being scraped completely clean of pith, the lemon peels used to infuse the grain alcohol base with flavor should seep in the bottle until the essential oil is released, a process that takes about three months (100 proof vodka infuses a little faster, in about a month). The resulting liquid then has to sit another month or so after the right amount of simple syrup is added. Too much sugar will make it syrupy, and not enough will make it taste like strong vodka instead of smooth and sweet. Ms. Wood says.
Customers can order it chilled in a short glass ($10) or enjoy it in one of the
restaurant’s specialty cocktails, such as the Negroni Frizzante. Limoncello flights also are on the menu, with 15 flavors that range from peach, pineapple and strawberry to a spicy Fresno chili pepper.
Unlike another famous Italian liqueur that’s popular in the U.S. — the almond flavored amaretto — limoncello doesn’t have a particularly long history. Amaretto, which originated in Sorrono in Italy’s Lombardy region, has been around in one form or another since the 16th century. Limoncello, conversely, is believed to have originated in the early 1900s on Capri, an island on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region.
While lemons themselves have been around for centuries — they made their way to Italy centuries ago via trade routes from the Middle East — the idea to flavor alcohol with fruit didn’t arise, so the story goes, until a local woman named Lady Maria Antonia Farace decided to use the lemons and oranges she grew near her small boarding house on Capri to produce an infused liqueur for guests.
Others say limoncello originated in the 1600s by the nuns of the Santa Rosa convent in Conca dei Marini on the Amalfi Coast, or was first made by fishermen around the same time as a way to chase away the morning cold.
Whenever and wherever it first was made, the digestif proved such a hit, that after World War II, Ms. Farace’s grandson opened a bar featuring her limoncello recipe. In 1988, her great-grandson, Massimo Canale, started producing it in small batches for sale and registered the trademark, Limoncello di Capri. It started making its way to the U.S. in the late ‘60s, and has slowly grown in popularity ever since.
It’s not just making an appearance on liquor store shelves. Giant Foods, which has 150 grocery stores throughout Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, this month trotted out a line of limoncello inspired foods, including Sorrento lemon-flavored lemonade, pancake mix, waffles, olive oil and tortilla chips. The limited time originals also include limoncello hand soap and paper towels.
Last year’s inaugural Festa Di Limoncello sold out with almost 100 guests, and Mr. Vallozzi expects a bigger crowd of 150 this year. The footprint’s larger, too, with all of McMasters Way included in addition to the restaurant’s lounge and patio.
“It will be like a street festival,” he says.
New this year is a Rose Tasting Tent where guests can sample Italian roses with Vallozzi’s in-house wine expert, Alan Uchrinsko, and Vallozzi’s sister restaurant Talia will have prosecco on tap for tasting throughout the afternoon. Local DJs will spin world music.
“It’s a nice, refreshing launch to summer,” Mr. Vallozzi says.
If you’d rather fill up with a glass at home, commercial limoncello is easy enough to find in local liqueur stores (ranges from $16 to $33). The uses are many. In addition to being the perfect after-dinner summer drink or sweet mixer, limoncello can used to brighten desserts, make ice cream, whip into viniagrettes or in a sauce to be served with chicken.
Bon appetito!