Marmellata di limoni

As much as I am an advocate of simplicity in the kitchen – simple procedures, simple flavours, a handful of good ingredients and a quick, delicious result – there is also something about a process that I have always enjoyed. I find having a patience-requesting, detailed process in front of you actually quite meditative and relaxing, and when there are those rainy days when you don’t want to leave the house and have no where you need to rush off to (a bit of luxury for me these days), then making jam is just one of those things that I find a rewarding way to slow down.

It doesn’t need to be complicated – two ingredients are all that is needed in this case. In fact, making this marmellata di limoni is extraordinarily simple, you just need a few hours up your sleeve, some good music or good company and a watchful eye. I’ve been plotting making lemon marmalade since moving into our house a few months ago and discovering the lemon tree in the backyard. I’m actually not much of a jam eater (though I do make some exceptions, and when I do, I have a thing for tangy, bittersweet marmalades, eaten with plenty of butter on warm toast), I do prefer making it (like with this rose petal jam or this sweet tomato jam) and giving it away than eating it all myself.

In Italy, jam – marmellata or confettura – is a tradition found all over the peninsula, just as you’d expect from any cuisine with strong peasant roots that use the seasons to dictate what’s on its tables. It’s usually eaten for breakfast on fette biscottate or turned into crostata (jam tart). Marmellata di limoni is made most notably where you find profuse amounts of lemons, such as along Campania’s Amalfi coast, where the lemons grow larger and sweeter than anywhere else, and Sicily, where lemons have been growing since the Middle Ages, one of the many exotic and beautiful things brought to the island from the Middle East when it was an Arabic island.

As I said, this is not a complicated recipe at all. Quite the contrary. It requires boiling the lemons whole, then chopping, rather than the other way around, which makes for somewhat less effort in the end. It sounds like an awful lot of sugar, but this is the classic ratio for citrus marmalades (1 to 2, fruit to sugar) and we’re talking lemons here – I tried to use less sugar but it’s just a bit too tart; rudely so, making your mouth pucker. If using naturally sweeter lemons such as Meyer lemons (a cross between a lemon and a mandarin or orange) orAmalfi lemons you could get away with much less sugar – taste it as you go when at the step where you stir the sugar through your pan.

The result is a softly set, topaz coloured marmalade that spoons and dribbles just so; not too sweet, not too sour, but bittersweet. Marmalade tends to bring out the anglo-saxon in me. I let this lemon version melt onto buttered toast, drizzle it over some natural yogurt and have you ever tried a spoonful in a mug of black tea to sweeten it? This would also be lovely to cook desserts with, in a tart like this crostata, brushed over a plain margherita cake or used in a jam cake. And although I love this jam just as it is, it would also go beautifully infused with elderflower, fresh ginger, fresh rosemary or speckled with black vanilla.

For a bit of marmalade inspiration, I looked at Nigel Slater and Poires au Chocolat as well as old Sicilian recipes, which are usually a version of the one found in Marmellate e Conserve by Enza Candela Bettelli (in Italian, 1986). While the English style of marmalade results in a clear, jewel-like, soft jam punctuated with finely sliced rind, the Sicilian recipes for lemon marmalade involve passing the cooked, whole lemons through a passaverdura, a food mill, for an opaque puree that is then combined with the sugar and thickened over the stove. Below is a classic method inspired by an English marmalade, but if you want to try it the Sicilian way, simply replace the step where you scoop out the insides and slice the rind by passing all of this minus the seeds through a food mill (it will pass through the pulp and rind while sifting out unwanted bits such as the membranes, which are discarded). Proceed with the rest of the recipe.

Marmellata di limoni
Lemon marmalade

Makes about 2.5-3 litres of marmalade

  • 1 kg organic, unwaxed lemons
  • 2 kg sugar

Wash your lemons and cut off the little buttons on the tops, then pop them in a large pan of water (about 2-2½ litres) and boil them whole until the skins become incredibly soft – about 2 hours, but if they’re small, 1 hour might be enough. Remove the lemons, saving the water left in the pan and topping up if necessary to have about 1½ litres of liquid.

Open up the lemons and scoop everything out with a spoon, leaving the skins nice and neat with no pith. Place the insides (pith, seeds, pulp and all) in a strainer over a bowl to drain. Chop the skins as finely as you can, which can be a bit fiddly only because they’ll be so soft and a bit slippery, which will likely lead you to a rustic, even chunky sort of marmalade (if you are pedantic about the width of your marmalade skins, you may prefer the method where you chop the skins before cooking them, a method I find much more tedious).

Place the skins back into the pan, along with the sugar. Strain the pulpy/pithy mass you extracted from the inside of the lemons, adding the strained juice and pulp back into the pan. Tie the pith and seeds leftover in your strainer into a “bag” of muslin or cheesecloth and with kitchen string, tie over the side of the pot so it is fully submerged in the liquid. This will help set the marmalade, thanks to the pectin in the lemon seeds and pith (some will say that this bit is unnecessary and the marmalade sets anyway, probably due to the boiling of the whole lemons earlier, but I like to do it anyway, just in case, and it’s all part of that process that I enjoy).

Bring the marmalade to a boil and boil rapidly for about 20 minutes for a soft set. To test it, you’ll want to have put a little saucer in the freezer earlier, place a blob of hot marmalade on it, pop it back in the freezer for 30 seconds and take a look at it. Poke it or turn the plate a little, if it crinkles, you’re done.

Leave the jam to cool for 10 minutes or so then ladle the hot jam into clean, dry jars, warmed in the oven (beware of stray fingers, this jam burns and I speak from experience! I now leave the hot jars in a baking dish on the counter and ladle the jam into the jars without touching them to avoid burns). Seal the lids tightly (a dishcloth helps protect your hands) and set aside. As the jam cools, the seals should tighten and contract. You’ll hear popping when this happens! Store somewhere cool and dry; once opened, store in the fridge.

Comments

  1. Rosa says:

    Heavenly! That is something I’ll have to make soon…

    Cheers,

    Rosa

  2. Thanks for the link! I love making marmalade but I’ve only ever tried the Seville – maybe I’ll try some lemon soon, I’m feeling really into jamming at the moment.

    • Emiko says:

      I loved your post on Seville marmalade and that amazing colour! I feel like there’s so much potential with marmalade – I made blood orange marmalade last winter, and usually stick with classic methods but I think (seeing as I have a whole tree!) I’ll experiment with adding some infusions to it (rosemary) and will next try the Sicilian method. Wonder if it’d translate well to other citrus jams too?

  3. I love the colour of this marmelade, and I agree on how relaxing it is the long process of making a jam, taking a few hours for you, especially when it rains outside.
    I would love this jam in a crostata di farro, mmmh!

    • Emiko says:

      Oh you’re right, crostata di farro con marmellata al limone – delicious! I was actually going to make biscottini di pasta frolla to put this marmalade on, so I might take on your idea! Pretty colour isn’t it?

  4. PolaM says:

    i LOVE lemon marmelade! I have to make it again using your method that looks much easier than the one i used!

  5. i love a tart citrusy marmalade – and your stacked jars look so beautiful and golden. i have never thought to dribble it over natural yoghurt – i’ll be trying this soon! as my mother is the jam maker in the family, i shall ask her if she has ever cooked them whole as you suggest. does sound easier.

    • Emiko says:

      It’s a technique that works very well for any marmalade, oranges, tangelos etc but maybe not limes as they have a very particular skin. If you like these lovely American quilted jars, which I have always loved, ebay is a good source! 😉

  6. Em says:

    I am new to the world of marmalade but looking forward to trying this as a gift for my Dad.
    Thanks

  7. Tanya says:

    Can you please translate kg into pounds?

  8. Liza says:

    Hi Emiko,

    We have loads of bush lemons at the moment so I will be making this marmalade today. Tell me, where did you source those lovely jam jars?

    Thanks for another great recipe,

    Liza

    • Emiko says:

      Oh, bush lemons, lovely! I found the jam jars on ebay, got them from a Melbourne-based seller for quicker postage time but they come from the US – they’re call Ball Quilted Glass Jelly jars, these little ones are 4 oz sized and come in a pack of 12. For this amount of marmalade I had to fill up a few extra larger jars too.

  9. Kate says:

    I made this with Clementines–Heaven! And so easy….I’m using it for little tarts….I’ll do it with lemons next. Thanks!

  10. Grace says:

    Working on this today. I’m a little confused on the instruction to strain the pulp and pips, then add the pulp and juice back into the pot, then tie the pith and pips into a bag. How did you remove the pulp from the strained lemon insides?

    • Emiko says:

      When cooked the lemons get very, very soft and you can easily scoop out the insides and push it through a sieve (or a food mill) – what you will be left with are the pith and pips, which you can add back into the pot (but set aside in a little ‘bag’ of muslin) or you can simply remove them and discard them entirely at this point and carry on for a less set jam.

  11. Jane says:

    On the stove boiling as we speak smells delicious. Hope tastes as good as it smells. I just wild bush lemons (i am from australia). So my fruit was free! Picked them on the side of the road. Thanks for the recipe.

  12. Mia says:

    Made it yesterday and couldn’t wait to try it on the toast this morning – looks, smells and tastes amazingly! Thanks a lot for the recipe and keep up the good work – you’re stories, photos, the way you write about food are so inspiring to me!

  13. Burtine Kendall says:

    I have made this marmalade and it is wonderful. I plan to serve the last of this batch to my knitting group on lemon/blueberry scones.

  14. Armando Vargas-Araya says:

    With my wife, we just made lemon marmalade with your recipe. Deliciosa! Muchas gracias from Costa Rica.

  15. Geraldine says:

    Some dear friends arrived from their home on Elba bringing me a basket of their bitter oranges and some wonderful lemons. I have just made some of your marmellata di limoni and couldn’t be more thrilled. Easy recipe to follow and seven jars of delicious lemon preserve to last until their next visit! Many thanks Emiko

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