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Enough with the cocktail recipes, okay? They look delicious, but I'm pregnant and it's hard enough abstaining without being reminded of all the mojitos I'd like to be making with all that mint coming up in the garden.

Limoncello symbolizes summer in our house. Since I got excellent tequila (my in-laws brought it back from Mexico as a souvenir), I will give your recipe a try. It will change from the classic margarita.

We use a two-step recipe which has the lemon peels brewing with grain alcohol for a few weeks before the simple syrup is added. Limoncello tastes lovely straight from a long chill in the freezer.

This is the drink from the movie, Under the Tuscan Sun. I just watched it for the first time, and it sounded so good! Thanks for posting the recipe!

You can also use the peel of oranges to make arancello which is a specialty in some towns in Southern Italy.

tell me... has anyone ever had their homemade limoncello come out tasting like pine-sol? or did i possibly do something wrong (highly likely...as simple as this is...)?

ambsATX,
Not quite pine-sol, but my batch of homemade limoncello came out tasting like liquid Ricola (which doesn't say tasty cocktail to me). My feeling is that I zested the lemons badly and included some of the white pith. I had also used regular vodka (as 100 proof is illegal around here), which may also have contributed to the result.

The white pith of either lemon or oranges make the drink bitter. I always have to peel carefully to avoind as much white pith as possible. At Wholefoods they usualy apply bee's wax to make the lemons and oranges look nicer so check with your grocer if they do that too. I usually scrub them down with a potato brush.
I have had friends use vodka and they say it does not taste as good. I never figure out why excatly but my guess is that the alcohol content in grain alcohol is much higher thus it extracts the flavour much better.
Good Luck.