Sorbetto di limone (Lemon Sorbet)
Ingredients
- 1 kilo 2 lbs lemons
- 250 g 1/2 lb sugar
- 500 ml 2 cups water
Instructions
- Start with the best quality lemons you can buy (preferably organic) and sugar. Peel the lemons with a vegetable peeler or paring knife, leaving as much of the pith (the white layer beneath the lemon's outer yellow skin, or zest) behind as you can manage. (The pith is quite bitter, although there's no need to fuss about it too much; a bit of pith will give your sorbetto some character.)
- Put the sugar, water and lemon zest in a saucepan and bring it to a simmer. Let it cook for 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and let the resulting syrup cool completely.
- Meanwhile, cut your lemons in half and juice them. (This quantity of lemons should produce roughly 350ml/12 fl oz of juice.) An electric juicer certainly comes in handy, even if it's not strictly necessary, of course.
- When the syrup has cooled, add the lemon juice to the saucepan, give it a stir, and strain the mixture through a sieve.
- Add the mixture to an ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer's directions for a making a sorbet.
Notes
Tastes vary as to the best consistency for sorbetto di limone, but as a rule Italians serve it quite soft. If you like a fluffy and smooth consistency, you can fold in a stiffly beaten egg white or two into the lemon-syrup mixture.
If you don't have an ice cream maker, you can simulate a sorbetto with a whisk and a freezer: you place the lemon-syrup mixture in a large metal bowl in the freezer, removing it every 1o minutes or so to whisk it smooth and repeating until the mixture is frozen to the desired consistency.
If you're not up for that much fuss, you can use the same mixture to make a granita di limone: freeze the mixture in a ice tray or loaf pan, stirring it with a spatula every 30-45 minutes or so. Stirring rather than whisking, and at longer intervals, will produce a grainier texture, something like shaved ice.
In either case, total freezing time will be 60-90 minutes.