Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Rosemary and Lemon, Who Knew?

The other day I posted about the weekly shipments of organic vegetables and herbs I get from our CSA and I posted about a particular problem, namely I didn't know what to do with all that rosemary. Well, you all came to the rescue with a variety of tips including drink recipes. Well, I went ahead and made a simple syrup infused with chopped rosemary and added that as a sweetener to lemonade with stellar results. Wow is rosemary lemonade delicious! You have GOT to try this! Run, don't walk to your nearest plant nursery and pick up a rosemary plant if you don't already have one, and make this recipe:

Rosemary simple syrup:

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup water
1/2 cup roughly chopped rosemary leaves

In a small saucepan, place the sugar and water. Bring to a boil and once all the sugar has dissolved, put in the rosemary. Reduce heat to minimum and let steep (don't let this boil) for 10 minutes. Strain into a glass jar and reserve for your next glass of lemonade.

Rosemary Lemonade:

juice of 1 lemon
8 to 12 ozs cold water
tablespoon or two of rosemary simple syrup
ice

Mix all ingredients together in a tall glass, relax and enjoy. Music to sip cool Rosemary Lemonade on a warm Italian balcony: "Mambo Italiano" sung by Rosemary Clooney.

9 Comments:

Blogger nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

This is one of my favorite flavor combos. I have never had this kind of lemonade. Sound delicious.

3:45 PM  
Blogger Cherry said...

What a great idea!
Of course, lemon and rosemary go perfectly together. I would never have thought of putting it in a drink.

Thanks for the tip! I must remember this one when it gets warm around here and we are looking for treats to help us cool off!

4:29 PM  
Blogger Proud Italian Cook said...

Oh good! You tried it! Isn't it refreshing? It sure looks it! This reminds me of summer!

11:00 PM  
Blogger Susan in Italy said...

Hi Ragazza and Cherry, Oh, that combination in sweet things is unbeatable! My next experiment is lemon rosemary marmalade.

Hi Marie, Thanks a million for the idea! It was warm here earlier in the week and I had some lemonade while gardening on the balcony - great!

5:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

A very dear friend of mine just recently introduced me to rosemary 'tea' now I can tell her about this! Thanks!

10:48 PM  
Blogger Christina said...

Thanks for the recommendation. Rosemary is practically a weed around here, so it is particularly exciting to make a beverage out of it

I'm glad that CSA is working so well for you.

4:55 AM  
Blogger Brent said...

I enjoy that combination too. Another way to use Rosemary is as a flavoring in shortbread. I do this often around Christmas time.

7:15 AM  
Blogger Avory said...

Rosemary lemonade, yum!

I keep hearing about CSA on foodblogs. I wasn't sure about it, economically, as I am a vegetarian living alone on a budget and the food always goes bad before I can eat it. But then I decided to do it, and all the CSA farms are already full for the year! Darnit! There's one that would be only $11 a week for a half share, but I wasn't enthused by the types of veggies they grow, even though the farmer was really nice to me on the phone. I think maybe I'll do CSA when I live in Europe and have a better job, if I can find one in whatever country I'm in. It certainly seems like a great idea!

4:45 PM  
Blogger Stelle in Italia said...

I'm running there now! :) okay not this exact moment, but i definitely want to try this! yum!

7:43 AM  

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