If you crave an authentic Italian lemon sorbet with intense lemon flavor and a creamy light texture, this is it. The perfect balance between sour and sweet, this sorbet is the perfect palate cleanser between courses. Or enjoy for a light dessert where you’ll only need a few bites to feel satisfied. AND you’ll find no bits of lemon rind to disturb the lovely smooth texture.
Lactose free, gluten free and gluten free, you can serve this delightful dessert to anyone with special dietary concerns and they can still embrace the joy of sweet lemon sorbet, the Italian way.
My grown kids are both lactose intolerant. Alas, we didn’t quite realize this when they were growing up, but at least we DID figure it out eventually! My son loves all things sour. He can suck on a lemon and smile. So he really adores a good lemon sorbet. It’s been increasingly harder and harder to find a good lemon sorbet at the stores and ice cream shops. But we can still obtain fresh lemons. He hasn’t been happy with any of my homemade attempts because he’s incredibly picky about texture. He can detect even the tiniest bit of lemon zest in the sorbet. That totally ruins it for him. So we were both super excited to try this recipe from Recipes from Italy that doesn’t use lemon zest.
While I see some people are amazed that the quality of fresh produce has decreased, I’m just amazed we can still buy fresh produce! It’s getting harder and harder to grow things, as I know from experience.
What makes this Italian Lemon Sorbet Authentic?
I adapted this recipe just slightly from Recipes from Italy. Italians excel at frozen treats, so of course, lemon sorbet tops the list. I love this approach on this recipe – so different from all of the recipes I’ve seen that say to add shredded lemon zest to the mix. Instead of grating your lemon zest and disturbing the texture of the sorbet, why not use a peeler to get that precious rind off without the bitter white pith? You can easily remove the large shreds of lemon rind from the syrup to make a lemon sorbet with all the good lemon flavor with no disruption in the creamy light texture.
The other trick to this recipe is to blend the mixture before you put it in the ice cream freezer. When you blend it, that introduces tiny air pockets into the frozen concoction that stay put in the freezer, keeping the sorbet from freezing too hard.
And then I also added some Limoncello, Italy’s famous lemon liqueur. Whenever you add a bit of alcohol to a frozen treat, you can expect it to stay softer longer. If you’re serving to children, of course you want to keep the alcohol content to a minimum (think like how we add vanilla to cookies – just a teaspoon per batch). But if this is for an adult gathering, go ahead and use the full 1/4 cup of limoncello.
Once upon a time, I had a lemon tree in my back yard, but I’m no longer in a climate that supports lemons. So today I’m sending out a thank you to all the growers of lemons. I depend on you for luscious lemon treats like this.
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Lemon Sorbetto (Sorbet)
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 5 min
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: 4 – 6 servings 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Frozen
- Cuisine: Italian
- Diet: Low Lactose
Ingredients
- 5 lemons
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup Limoncello (or more water)
Instructions
- Using a peeler, peel the lemon rind (just the yellow, not the bitter white part) from the outside of all the lemons. Then juice the lemons.
- Put the rinds in a pan with the sugar, water, limoncello and lemon juice. Heat over low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the sugar is fully dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool. Strain out the rind and any bits of lemon using a strainer.
- Chill the liquid until ready to freeze. Put in a blender and blend until frothy. The air bubbles will help keep the sorbet more creamy and soft once frozen.
- Pour into ice cream maker and follow manufacturer’s instructions to freeze.
Notes
RECIPE SOURCE: Sumptuous Spoonfuls – https://www.sumptuousspoonfuls.com/ … © Copyright 2023, Sumptuous Spoonfuls. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to publish any of my images, please ask first. If you want to republish this recipe as your own, please re-write the recipe in your own words or link back to this post for the recipe.
Keywords: Lemon, Sorbet, Sorbetto, Italian, Lactose free
Looking for more frozen treats?
We love our ice cream maker and have created so many delightful ice cream recipes. Be forewarned, though, all the below recipes do include lactose.
- Bailey’s Chocolate Ice Cream – rich, creamy chocolate ice cream that’s better than any other I’ve ever tasted
- Baby Pink Raspberry Ice Cream – I made this for a pregnant mom who was craving ice cream and then she had a beautiful baby girl! The raspberries give it a beautiful pink hue and lovely tart-sweet flavor.
- Dad’s Fresh & Simple Vanilla Ice Cream – my dad rocked it on this one. It’s simply delicious!
- Low Fat Peanut Butter Ice Cream – Reduced in calories and fat, but not in flavor
- Whipped Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream – tastes like strawberry cheesecake
- Sweet Corn Ice Cream with Salted Caramel Sauce – think caramel corn in ice cream form
