Our Italian evening we pulled out all the stops (at least we think so) and used Christopher’s homemade limoncello for both the pre-dinner cocktail and the palate cleanser. The limoncello recipe is from the lovely cookbook Bringing Italy Home by Urusla Ferrigno.

The pre-dinner cocktail is so easy, but so so good. Add about a tablespoon of limoncello in a champagne flute. Fill up with prosecco and enjoy!

I would like to call the palate cleanser a sorbet, but because of the alcohol, it is somewhere in between a sorbet and a granita. Either way it really did cleanse the palate.

Limoncello sorbet, serves 4 as a palate cleanser

285 ml water

200 g caster sugar

100 ml limoncello

1/2 lemon, the juice

Bring sugar and water to the boil and let it boil for 5 minutes. Leave to cool. Mix in the limoncello, taste nad pour into a tupperware box with a lid. Place it in the freezer a day before you need it, so it can set as much as possible. Spoon into bowls or little glasses and squirt with lemon juice. Serve straight away.