If you like limoncello, you’ll love its red-headed cousin, arancello. Consisting of only orange zest, vodka and sugar, it’s simple to make, delicious to drink, and impossible to buy in stores.
This recipe uses a lot of zest, and even washing oranges doesn’t remove the pesticides that have soaked into the skin. So try to find organic or at least pesticide-free fruit. Also, since you want the orange zest and not the white pith, it’s best to use Valencia oranges or a juicing-type orange rather than navel oranges. Different orange varieties will yield different tasting beverages.
Ingredients
- •Zest of 6 oranges
- •340 grams (1½ cups/12 ounces) sugar
- •About 1 liter (1 quart) vodka, as needed to fill
Preparation
Peel the oranges and scrape the white pith from the peels so that only the zest remains.
Put the zest into a 1 liter (1 quart) jar. Add the sugar and enough of the vodka to fill the container. Screw on the lid and store in a dark place.
After two weeks, strain the beverage through cheesecloth to remove the zest. Return the liquid to the jar and add enough vodka to top off the jar. You don’t need to age this.
Note: The best arancello is made from blood oranges, and adding 69 ml (3 ounces) of blood orange juice to the finished beverage turns it a beautiful, translucent red. When blood oranges are in season, I’ll zest 30 or 40 oranges, freeze the zest in zip lock bags, and freeze a few cups of juice as well. That gives me enough zest and juice to make fresh arancello throughout the year.