Tuscany Vacations: Arancello and Limoncello

Arancello, an orange liqueur, is the best way to say “alla salute!” when you’re in Tuscany. Learn how to make this and limoncello.

Well, in my opinion this amazing liqueur means stress-free life.

Toscana is not only one of the most beautiful Italy regions, it’s the temple of relax and Dolce Vita.

Visit the Honest Cooking Cookbook Shop

Here you can forget queues and long waits:

1. small shops where buying local products
2. unpaved back roads that run through the wheat fields
3. white roads that run among the olive groves and vineyards
4. tuscan countryside and woods where you can pic-nic and feel free to pick blackberries (plentiful in season)

In a few words, during your tuscany vacations just relax, enjoy views and drink with your family and friends.

This is one of the first reasons why I love my job: Cuoche in Vacanza (Cooks on Holiday). Ours is a seasonal job: we come to wherever you’re staying in Tuscany for Private Cooking Classes and Private Dinners.

While you’re at your holiday home you can share these esperiences with your family and friends:

• Taking a cooking class in Tuscany means you’re bringing home one of the best souvenirs
• Having a Private Dinner at your holiday home in Tuscany means authentic food experience to share and enjoy with your family and friends.

With Cuoche in Vacanza, they’ll be both “homemade” experiences and you’ll taste the same flavors that our grannies passed down to us.

You’ll have to see and to taste to believe!

Well, while we often offer a bottle of Prosecco during our Cooking Classes in Tuscany, our private dinners often end with a shot of ice cold homemade Arancello or Limoncello. In my opinion one of the perfect ways to enjoy Tuscany vacations :D !

Before coming my job season, every year I pick oranges and lemons from my trees (can be sure they’re not treated with chemical products!) and I start the preparation of this amazing liqueur so aromatic and digestive.

While peeling zests and pouring alcool, I’m thinking about our next customers on their tuscany vacations.

• What kind of persons will we meet next Summer?
• From which countries?
• Will be able to keep in touch even after their Tuscany Vacations?

In fact, after a 8 years job, I’ve now a lots of friends from everywhere in the world (most of all from USA and North Europe). Im sure that Friends is the right word, not customers, because we’re in touch during Winter time, we share our doubts and opinions and we help each other even if far away.

While the scent of Orange is pervading my kitchen I think to my past customers as well:

• their smiles while tasting our homemade dishes
• our laughs while making fresh pasta by scratch
• our drinks and cheers at the end of a dinner in Tuscany

In fact Arancello and Limoncello are like a symbol of Tuscany vacations when the protagonist is the food; a bit like the cypress trees for the walkers in Tuscan nature.

The method to make this fantastic liqueur is the same for both Arancello and Limoncello and the amount of ingredients as well.

Some important tips:

1. Buy only organic Oranges or Lemons (the alchool will absorbe all the “essentials” of the zests; don’t risk to drink pesticides or chemical products)
2. Choose (if you can) Oranges with a thick skin. You’ll not risk to cut the white part of the skin that’s very bitter and will give a bad flavor to your liqueur. Here in Italy they’re called “Arance da tavola” or table Oranges, to distinguish from “Arance da spremuta” Oranges for juice.
3. Don’t keep the zests in alchool more than 5 days. It’s a mistake to leave them for a week or more. After 4 or 5 days in fact, the essential oils start to exit and separate from alchool. This will give to your liqueur a too much “spicy” flavor.
4. This is the alcohol that we use here in Italy to make Arancello and Limoncello. We can buy to the supermarket the bottle that you see in the pictures.

Arancello (orange liqueur) or Limoncello (Lemon liqueur)

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• Author: Erika (Cuoche in Vacanza)
• Yield: 3 bottles 1x

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Ingredients

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• 5 organic oranges (or organic Lemons)
• 500 gr 2 cups Caster Sugar
• 500 ml 2 cups Water
• 500 ml 2 cups pure grain alcohol (you can use 100% pure vodka, but it won’t taste the same)

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Instructions

1. Peel the Oranges (make sure you don’t get the white part)
2. Place the orange skins in a big jar and pour in the grain (pure) alcohol
3. Seal the jar and let it infuse for about 4 days in a dark place
4. The fourth day make a simple syrup: pour the sugar in a pot with the water, let it dissolve and boil for about 5 minutes
5. Let it cold
6. The day after, using a strainer, add the “orange” alcohol to the syrup (so that orange skins don’t go into the arancello)
7. Mix it well for a couple of minutes
8. Fill up some glass empty bottles
9. Arancello is now ready! Just drink it when is very cold, better if you put in freezer
10. Serve it in small glasses
11. Store in a dry and dark place the other bottles

• Category: Liqueur
• Cuisine: Italian

Don’t forget that you can make Limoncello and Arancello in the same way!

Do you think that this post could be useful ? Please leave a comment and I’ll answer you asap!

You can also be interested in other Tuscan recipes:

Caramelized Tomatoes for pasta

Italian Meatballs!