Limoncello Batch #17

Limoncello is a variation of Lemoncello with limes instead of lemons. I've tried it a few times and it's a bit more difficult to make because the limes have a more pronounced 'bitterness' and need some work getting the amount of syrup right. If you have a favorite 'family' lemoncello recipe, it probably won't come out perfect first try w/limes. We found the secret in making good limoncello was in making a very concentrated syrup.

Ingredients:
- A dozen limes
- 750ml Everclear
- White sugar
- Distilled water

Procedure:
- Grate the green part of the peel off the limes, careful not to get any white. Use a cheese grater.
- Put the grated lime peels in a jar with the Everclear. This process is called 'macerating' by the way. The limes need to sit in here for a while, let them soak for about a month, gently stirring the jar every few days. Keep it in a cool dark place. The color of the liquid is amazingly beautiful!
- When ready, pour the liquid off through a strainer. You can use coffee filters for this. Usually I strain it through the filters a couple times.
- Boil the sugar in the water. OK, here is the secret amount: 2 cups sugar to 2 cups water. Boil a few minutes and let cool. It will be nice and thick and syrup-y. Let is cool to room temp before using.
- Pour most of the syrup into the lime extract, saving about 1/2 cup. Give it a taste, if it is still bitter, add a little more syrup. The syrup is very concentrated, so you can control the sweetness of your limoncello quite a bit by small amounts of syrup. Just get it how you like it. I suppose you could even make more syrup if you want it sweeter.
- Put this in the freezer, within a day or so it gets nice and thick and ready to drink.
- There is one more step if you are a perfectionist. After a week or so in the freezer, the limoncello will develop some black specs. Traditional Lemoncello (with lemons instead of limes) doesn't do this, and Im not sure why, but of course the only thing it can be is the difference between lemons and limes. So, if you want it to be nice and clear, you can filter it one more time through a coffee filter, and put it back in the freezer.

Some notes:
As you can tell from the name "Batch 17", it took a while to get this recipe right. I learned a lot of tricks. For example, many recipes call for Vodka instead of the more expensive and harder to find Everclear - really the Everclear is much better. Also, the sugar water ratio is very important - I learned that making a very concentrated syrup, with equal amounts of water and sugar, made the lime flavors stand out more because you need much less syrup to get to the proper sweetness.

Gnocchi

Ingredients:
- 3 pounds russet potatoes
- 2 cups flour
- 1 egg

Procedure:
- The most important thing is to get organized, because when the potatoes are done and it's time to mix and cook them, it gets hectic
- Don't peel the potatoes; boil them until done. If they are big, expect 45+ minutes. Test them with a fork, they need to be pretty tender.
- Take the potatoes out of the water and let them cool until they are just cool enough to work with your hands.
- Peel the potatoes, and on a big workspace, mash them with your hands. Mix in 2 cups of flour gently, form a well in the middle and crack the egg in the well.
- Mix the whole thing with your hands. It will be sticky, when well mixed and the stickiness goes away, they are mostly ready.
- The mixture needs to be kneaded, but not too much. 2 or 3 minutes is ok.
- This is where you need to be extra organized; boil a big pot of water, and fill another big pot with an ice bath.
- Put one batch at a time into the boiling water and boil until they float. This only takes a minute or two. One batch is maybe a dozen gnocchi.
- Take the done, floating gnocchi out and put into the ice bath.
- Repeat until all are done.

The gnocchi are now ready to reheat and eat. A nice way to reheat them is in a pan w/olive oil or butter.