Easy Limoncello Recipe – Best Homemade Crema di Limoncello (Creamy or Plain)

Remember my Zia Francesca? I shared her penne alla vodka recipe a few years ago.

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Well, when I was visiting her once, she pulled a bottle of pale yellow colored liqueur from her freezer for us to taste. What can I say? It was simply phenomenal. It was my first time tasting crema di limoncello.

What is Limoncello? What is Crema di Limoncello?

Limoncello is a southern Italian lemon liqueur. This makes sense, given all the wonderful lemons that are grown in and around the Amalfi Coast and Positano area. It’s made with just the lemon peel (no pulp), sugar, water and alcohol. Crema di limoncello, as you can probably guess, is a creamy version, using either milk and/or cream, in place of the water. The latter is by far my favorite of the two.

– If you want to make regular limoncello, simply follow this recipe and substitute water for the milk,
easy peasy! –

It’s Limoncello, NOT Lemoncello.

Tasting my aunt’s creamy limoncello was years before Danny De Vito made limoncello a worldwide trendy drink. It was all due to his not-so-sober interview on The View about being out with George Clooney the night before drinking limoncello. He spoke of limoncello, yes, LIMONCELLO, with an “I” and pronounced “ee”, not LEMONCELLO with an English sounding “e”.

Lemoncello doesn’t exist in Italy. It’s obvious that English speakers have anglicized the name of this citrus liqueur, so remember that LEMON is English.

Once you make the limoncello, you’ll have to make limoncello tiramisù!

Even Danny De Vito mispronounces it as “lemoncello” and he should know better as he now has his own brand. I saw a video on how to make “authentic Sicilian lemoncello” online. That tells me all I need to know–I highly doubt it’s authentic if they don’t even know how to spell the name of what they’re making.

Warning: I’ve tried making limoncello with vodka and Everclear: it’s not worth it, trust me. 😒

Got kumquats? Try this kumquat liqueur!

Tips to Make Quick and Easy Limoncello Recipe (Creamy or Clear)

I just happen to have my Zia Francesca’s easy limoncello recipe for you. She makes it using whole milk, and it’s ready in just one day! You won’t sacrifice flavor, either. You’ll see that when you pull the peel out after 24 hours, the alcohol has already done its magic.

Tips:

• Don’t use any milk while has fish oil added to it as it will ruin your limoncello (learn from my mistake as I did this when I tried to make cheese once, #fail).
• I use Meyer lemons from my own trees (I don’t use any pesticides or chemicals on them or the soil); this type of lemon is far superior to a regular Eureka lemon you buy from the store (the rock hard ones). If you’re going to make this, try to find organic Meyer lemons, it will be worth the trouble, trust me. Meyer lemons are a cross between Eureka lemons and mandarin oranges; lemons chosen by chefs. They are much sweeter and much more juicy. 

• Want to use vodka? My advice: don’t. I’ve made it with vodka and Everclear and it’s not even close. It’s not “bad”, but I’d rate the vodka version a 3 compared to a 10 when using the right alcohol.
• Don’t fret about having the perfect number of lemons as it’s not critical to the recipe. You’re just infusing the alcohol with the peel, so more lemons will give a much stronger lemon flavor, less will be a lighter lemon taste. You could also have tiny lemons or large lemons, so just use your best approximation.
• After your limoncello is ready, you can always add more milk to your glass if you find it’s too strong.

Here’s a top recipe for blackberry vodka from my friend Suzanne, at The Travel Bunny.