Food - Drink
The Sweet Citrus Dessert That Was Inspired By Southern Italy's Amalfi Coast
By ERICA MARTINEZ
Italy’s Amalfi Coast is renowned for its beaches, candy-colored villages, and its famed Almafi lemon crop. The region even inspired a dessert called Lemon Delight.
Lemon Delight or Delizia al Limone was created by Italian pastry chef Carmine Marzuillo, who took inspiration from the Amalfi lemon and created a decadent citrusy dessert.
Lemon Delight originally consisted of a large sponge cake soaked in an herbal digestif liqueur called Strega, then filled and coated with lemon cream and garnished with cherries.
Modern Lemon Delights are smaller, and made with lemon sponge cake, lemon cream, custard cream, whipped cream, limoncello, limoncello water, and lemon glaze.
The lemon sponge cake is filled with lemon custard cream and soaked in limoncello, glazed with custard cream and limoncello water, and topped with whipped cream and lemon zest.
While this dessert is most common on the Amalfi Coast, you may find it in a specialty Italian bakery, or you can make it yourself using Meyer lemons in place of Amalfi lemons.