2016 ITALY Sorrento 38 - Lemon Delights

We arrived back to port about 18:30. Colorful houses and businesses were lined up along the waterfront.
One of those businesses was Cassano 1875. Their leading product is limoncello liquor. They also produce artisanal jams and sweets. We were welcomed into the store and factory by our host Maurizio Ercolano and his wife. 

The oval variety lemons are grown locally on the Sorrento Peninsula and play a starring role here. Chef John gets a whiff of the wonderful sweet aroma of a fresh picked lemon. We all got a chance at that as well. Heavenly!

This business was established in 1998, but uses techniques from southwest Italy dating back to the 19th century. The process of making this liquor includes hand-picking and hand-peeling lemons and macerating the peels into alcohol. That and time produces the famous limoncello of this region.

We weren't allowed in for sanitary reasons, but the small production room was pointed out to us.

The finished product.

Here are the guys enjoying a sample sip. Ummm, not good, but great! Limoncello has long been a favorite of ours. We usually keep a bottle in the freezer for when we need a pick-me-up. It definitely tasted better on the spot rather than months later at home.

We also had a cooking demo, making one of their dessert favorites. First the spongy pastries were soaked in a hot limoncello syrup on the stove. Maybe 10 seconds each. Then the cakes were filled with rich custard and topped with a cherry.

The finished product. They were so good I almost swooned. And so rich I could hardly finish. I think I gave Mike the last few bites as he has the sweet tooth in the family.

They also make many other sweet desserts.

The coup de grâce was that they also make a version of the lemon candies we had just bought on the Isle. It turns out the flavor is the same for all, but colors are different for different occasions like birthday or wedding, etc.

We bought a dozen packages in yellow to take home as gifties. Every single person that got them, loved the candies. They were all eaten in a flash. Later we ordered some online from Amazon (not this company though), but the didn't taste anywhere near as delicious. Guess we'll have to go back to Sorrento to pick up some more.

By the time the tour and demo were completed, it was dark. We were ready to go back to the hotel for a casual dinner and relaxation.

For our evening meal we had scheduled a potluck or dinner on our own. Instead Chef John proposed we order pizza and wine and have a pizza party on the patio of Villa Ketty. An excellent idea for these travel weary folks. We ordered four combos from the place we ate the night before, Pizza a Metro da Giglio. Mike and I munched on the Margarita, our fave.

This is the patio where we ate, but a daytime pix. It was really pretty at night lit up by the adobe ceramic lights.