Yeah, I get it, it’s stupidly hot outside this week. Wisconsin is not a state that should be teetering into triple-digit temperatures.
Unforunately, it is. The heat has sent local pools to capacity and made back-of-your-knee sweat the official look of August. There are several ways to combat this. Typically I opt for cold beers and a long stay in my air conditioned basement. But even my laziness has limits and, faced with a surplus of raspberries from my backyard (planted by the previous owner and thoroughly unkillable despite my indifference) and respectable Italian beverages, I decided to try something new. Behold, the granita:
While the end result looks a little too much like bad mall-style bourbon chicken, it tastes glorious. This mix of fruit and water combines for a flakier, softer and more flavorful version of Italian ice. So how do you make it? It’s pretty simple.
- About two pounds of fruit (I used raspberries, because they’re free when you have several bushes that refuse to die)
- A half cup of sugar
- Fruit soda; in this case Sanpellegrino’s Limonata because I am fancy
- A big ol’ squeeze of fresh lemon
Blend them up into a big pink slurry, then pour it into a baking pan.
Freeze that mixture for about an hour. Then break it up with a fork to create the broken concrete-looking nuggets you see above — the namesake shape of the granita.
The process is slightly tedious but extremely easy up front. You blend some stuff, then you come back every so often to break it up and help the crystalized fruit/soda/sugar flakes form on the surface. The end result looks a little like fractured granite and a lot like poorly rendered blood spatters from a Nintendo 64 game. This, of course, is not going to keep me from eating it. It might actually make me more likely to tuck in.
The headliner here is the texture; not quite crunchy flakes, but close. It’s like a drier cousin to Italian ice. It’s got a soft snap that dissolves as it melts in your mouth. You get the raspberries up front — and all the seeds that come with them — before the lemon juice and Sanpelligrino kick in. It’s a simple combination, but it works.
The more I eat it, the more I like it. The sourness of the lemon and tart of the berries work in concert with the sugar involved to create a snappy, balanced (and simple) dessert. I wouldn’t rank it above ice cream, but it’s refreshing and unique and, importantly, gives me the chance to get rid of some of the raspberries from my backyard while leaving room to experiment.
Which is what you should do with whatever fruit/drink you’ve got on hand. The granita is an easy base from which you can improvise. Use strawberries, kiwis, bananas, whatever. Maybe use the granita as makeshift ice cubes for a cocktail that gets thicker as it goes on. I don’t know, just do you.
It’s not a perfect dessert, but it’s a great way to burn off some excess fruit and stay cool at the same time. The granita is summer’s banana bread. Give it a shot.
