This month's Italian Cooking and Living Magazine (available at Borders and maybe other bookstores) has a recipe for Limoncello Cheesecake that looks so good I'm going to hunt down the ingredients tomorrow and make it for the holidays.

I don't think I can copy it here for copyright reasons, but run to your bookstores!

StCirq, is this the magazine La Cucina Italiana you're referring to?

What a coincidence!!!
The Yankee just came home with gifts from clients, including a bottle of Limocello and two little glasses!
Cheers!

StCirq, I checked the website and it appears they're sister magazines. I'll have to do the same as you, as we (luckily) still have some limoncello left from our trip, and I have a husband who loves both limoncello AND cheesecake. Someone is going to be very happy this Christmas! Thanks for the tip.

Scarlett, your Yankee is a honey-bunny! Get that limoncello nice and cold, and have a farewell toast to your beautiful NYC!

I got a bottle from my sister who was visiting her son in Rome. It's been in my wine cellar for over a year.

How does one drink the stuff? Brandy sniffer, shot glass, cold like a shot of schnapps?

Please share your cheesecake recipe.

dln: You'll need a half cup for the recipe - hope you have that much left! Me, I need to go scouting tomorrow to find some. I've never bought it in the USA, so this could be something of a treasure hunt.

Budman: It's not my recipe, unfortunately, and it would be a violation of copyright to post it here, I'm quite sure.

If you want to e-mail me ([email protected]) I'll share it, but I'm concerned that too might be a violation.

Sorry, being in the publishing business I take these things a bit seriously.

Budman, the magazine StCirc is referring to is a wonderful magazine that not only has recipes, but travel articles. You'll be really glad you bought it. It brings Italy close!

StCirq, I certainly don't want to get you in trouble. I just love cheesecake, and that recipe just sounded yummie.

I guess I should put it in the freezer like a Jagermeister shot?

Budman, yes you can drink it very cold! And it's not gauche, either, to throw an ice cube in it. The thing to remember is that it's powerful stuff and a little goes a long way. It's good poured over the top of fruit salad, or drizzled on ice cream, or, as St. Cirq kindly pointed out, baked into a cheesecake!

Bon Appetite had a recipe for the drink Limoncello a year or so ago. Try a search for it on epicurious.com.

I believe copy write violation exists to the extent the document (in this case - the recipie0 is unque, to that end, do a slight change to the inrediants (based on experinace Of course)...ans those with fears,. should be able to share!!

The Italian Cooking and Living Magazine website does have a recipe for Limoncello Cake, perhaps they will post the cheesecake recipe once the current issue is off the stands.

In the meantime, you can buy the ICandLM plus the current issue of La Cucina Italiana, which has a recipe for homemade limoncello; then you can make your own limoncello and the cheesecake.

As for drinking the potent potion -- Crate and Barrel sells some adorable limoncello glasses. I bought some for my husband for Christmas.

Tonight was not limoncello but Pear Muscat
Pear today, Lemon tomorrow~

OK, here goes, with my changes editorialised for, uh, copyright purposes:

For the Crust:

12 ladyfinger cookies or 12 madeleines, finely ground
1 cup whole almonds, crushed
1/2 cup sugar
1 tspn salt
1 stick butter, melted


For the cheesecake:
1 1/2 lbs. cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
5 eggs
1/2 cup limoncello
2 tblspns lemon extract
1 tblspn vanilla extract
1/2 cup seedless raspberry preserves
2 cups mixed fresh fruit (berries, I should think)
fresh mint leaves for garnish

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 350. Combine the cookies and almonds in a food processor. Add the sugar, salt, and melted butter and blend well.

Line a 9" springform pan with parchment paper and press the cookie-almond mix into the bottom and sides. Place in oven and bake for 10 minutes, then set aside to cool.

Put the cream cheese in a mixer and beat until soft. Add the sugar and heavy cream and mix to combine. Add the eggs, one at a time - wait until each egg is incorporated before adding the next. Add the limoncello and lemon and vanilla extracts and mix to combine.

Pour the mixture into the prebaked crust.

Place the preserves in a squeeze bottle with a narrow tip and pipe swirls on the top of the filling.

Using a toothpick or skewer, drag the preserves in a zigzag design. Place the cheesecake on the middle rack of the oven and bake until set, about 45 minutes to 1 hour. It's set when a toothpick inserted in it comes out clean and dry. Allow the cake to cool at room temperature for about 2 hours. Serve with fresh fruit and garnish with mint leaves.

If you cam find the limoncello di capri or try to make your own.

10 lemon
1 liter vodka
3 cups white sugar
4 cups water









1 Zest the lemons, and place zest into a large glass bottle or jar. Pour in vodka. Cover loosely and let infuse for one week at room temperature.
2 After one week, combine sugar and water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. DO NOT STIR. Boil for 15 minutes. Allow syrup to cool to room temperature.
3 Stir vodka mixture into syrup. Strain into glass bottles, and seal each bottle with a cork. Let mixture age for 2 weeks at room temperature.
4 Place bottled liqueur into the freezer. When icy cold, serve in chilled vodka glasses or shot glasses.

I would think that every recipe we share and pass on to friends even on the internet was written in some publication at some point.

Thanks for the recipe.

I don't think you'll have any trouble finding Limoncello in the US these days, at least not in any good-sized city. (For those of you who are familiar with the store, our last bottle was purchased at Trader Joe's!)

Well, I can't get limoncello where I live, so I guess I'll have to use Mimi's recipe, then try out the cheesecake recipe, too! Thanks you all. My mouth is watering already. (sigh).

Sea Urchin:
I would think that it would be very strange if most recipes passed along are ones that were previously published. I thought usually the point of sharing a recipe is to give people something they cannot otherwise find themselves.
I hardly ever pass on a recipe that's written in a publication. I almost never follow a recipe verbatim anyway, except for baking, which I hate to do. If I post recipes or type them up and pass them to people who requested them, they are always either ones I made up myself, or ones that I based on several diverse versions of a dish in different published recipes, picking and choosing the elements that made sense to me and fit into my way of cooking, or ones that I developed in an attempt to reproduce, approximately, something I remember tasting in the past. So, except for something very basic and simple like limoncello, with few ingredients and little need to specify quantities, I don't think it's true that most recipes passed along on the Internet are ones that have been published somewhere, and are therefore findable if someone tries. It's the original ones that are worth passing along, since people cannot otherwise find them.
It wouldn't be considered a violation of copyright to pass along a published recipe to a friend via private e-mail. That's very different from posting it on a big public website like Fodors.

Note the recipe for limoncello. If you cannot find limoncello, to get a similar result in the baked product you can use a comparable volune of vodka plus sugar syrup, and a few drops of oil of lemon peel (available in Boyajian brand, and possibly others).