Frozen granita perfect for hot summer nights

Our latest culinary venture took our imagination to Italy for some granita.

Here in the States we call it shaved ice, and it is a summer delight with its sweetness and refreshing coolness. We took advantage of some early-summer stone fruit and made a cherry version as well as lemon-mint.

My kids are always excited about a new recipe for me to write about, especially if it is a dessert. Granitas are so easy. All you need is a simple syrup, which is equal parts sugar and water, and the fruit of your choice. We had a bowl of sweet cherries, so that was an easy choice for a flavor. My neighbor gave me a few apricots off her tree, which was an option, but we gobbled up the ripe ones too quickly to turn them into anything. I suggested lemon-mint. At first they gave the mint part the thumbs down –too mature for their palates, but with a little persuasion, the idea was accepted.

Clay, 3, got to help make the syrup by adding the sugar and water to a small pan. We put it over low heat to dissolve the sugar then put it into the fridge to let it cool quickly. Emma, 7, and Molly, 5, headed out in search of mint in my garden. Then, all the kids lined up on the counter to try the cherry pitter. This was the highlight of our kitchen work, and I wished I had more cherries for them to do this tedious task for me. After the pitting, we put the cherries and half of the necessary syrup in a blender and puréed the fruit until it was smooth.

Emma honed her knife skills by chopping the mint. I am not ready to give her a big chef’s knife, so she chops with a little paring knife. It does not yield the most beautifully chopped items, but she and I are both more comfortable with a small, three-inch blade rather than an eight-inch weapon.

Emma took charge of scraping the ice every half hour or so. Using a fork, she pulled it across the forming ice crystals and along the edge of the pan. Make sure to really chop it up, otherwise you will end up with big ice chunks. Any pan will work, but we used metal cake pans. The mixture froze quickly, as it had a lot of surface area, and the metal chilled the mixture a lot faster than ceramic or glass.

Freezing desserts dulls their taste, so when sweetening the granita, make sure it is full of flavor. Make it on the sweeter side. The pinch of salt really enhances the taste, too. The fruit needs to be perfectly ripe to make a delicious granita. Other flavors that would be good are melon, berry and grapefruit. Herbs are a great enhancement, as is ginger or liquors. Use your imagination and invent your own combinations. You will have to adjust the amount of sugar syrup you use depending on the sweetness of the fruit.

The upcoming month should provide us with some delicious fruits to enjoy. Have fun making this perfect, Italian ending to any summer meal.

Cherry Granita - makes 2 cups

1½ cups pitted sweet cherries
¾ simple syrup (half sugar, half water)
Pinch of salt

To make simple syrup: Combine equal parts sugar and water. Dissolve over medium-low heat, then chill.

Purée the pitted cherries with half of the syrup in a blender until completely smooth. Transfer to a bowl and add remaining syrup and salt. Adjust to taste, but make sure it is full of flavor. Pour into a cake pan or other vessel and place in freezer. Using a fork, scrape, stir and chop the mixture every half hour or so until it is frozen, like shaved ice. To serve, remove from freezer for 10 minutes to allow it to soften slightly.

Lemon-Mint Granita - makes 2 cups
2 cups simple syrup 6 tablespoons lemon juice 2 tablespoons chopped mint Pinch salt
Combine ingredients, adjusting to taste with the syrup. Follow directions in Cherry Granita recipe for freezing and serving.

Margery Reed Poitras has 10 years of experience as a professional chef and six years experience as a mother.
mpoitras@discoveryspeed.com