Lemon gelato and Licorice sticks

A new cheap thrill: Lemon bars with licorice sticks! When I recently visited a friend in Ostia, he took me to a gelateria that serves liquorizia, or licorice-flavored gelato. I was told that the perfect complement to licorice is lemon. Who knew? I love licorice, but I didn't much care for the blend of flavors at that gelateria: the licorice overpowered the lemon. But the idea intrigued me, and when I came across another frozen dessert combining licorice and lemon, I had to try it.

Limoriz is a frozen gelato lemon bar with a licorice stick instead of the usual wooden stick in the middle of the bar. So when you're finished with the lemon bar, you still have another treat. I love it! It's my favorite new Italian dessert. And it's easy to keep them on hand in the freezer.

The cherry season is waning, but now there are fresh apricots and plums hanging from the trees. Claudio and Mariela gave me a fresh supply of apricots this week, in thanks for the kilo of cherries I gave them a few weeks ago.

It's heating up all over Italy, but it stays cool in the house, where I spend many hours working online right now. In another week, Deborah returns from Canada, and I'll be off to visit friends in Northern Italy. I'll be going to Verona, Trento, Padova, Venezia, Modena, either Parma or Cremona, and Firenze before heading back to Zagarolo at the end of July.