A little less than two years ago, we took a trip to Sicily.
We rented a villa with a group of family friends I’ve known since the day I was born, and proceeded to bop around the island, recreate 25 year old photos, cook and eat. I was six months pregnant with Theo, and after what I recall as only a mild panic attack while driving through switchbacks in a van with my entire family, I was banned from doing anything “strenuous” (emphasis my mother’s).
That meant I wasn’t allowed to go up Mount Etna, but hell—you know what’s not a strenuous activity in Sicily? Eating granitas.
So I ate granitas. A lot of them.
We discovered a shop called Bam Bar in Taormina which wasn’t too far from where we were staying, and we paid it a visit every chance we could.
This weekend, with the weather above 95 degrees and the air feeling like you were walking through soup, I retreated to our air conditioned kitchen while Jason battled with a jackhammer and I made us granitas.
Granitas are Italian shaved ice—think a snow cone except it’s nothing like a snow cone because it’s made up of real fruit that you puree and strain, then scrape down every 30 minutes until you get a smooth, beautiful, frozen dessert that tastes like absolute heaven in the heat.
The good news is their unfairly easy to make. The bad news is that you really have to eat it right away when it’s ready. The good news is that you really have to eat it right away when it’s ready.
- 18 ounces blackberries
- 3 teaspoons lime juice
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- Pinch of Kosher salt
- Handful of blackberries, chopped, as garnish
- In a blender or food processor, puree all ingredients until smooth. Using a fine mesh strainer, pour the puree into a loaf pan, pressing down on solids to get all the juice out. Place loaf pan, uncovered, in freezer for 30 minutes.
- Remove from freezer. Use a fork to scrape at the frozen portions, breaking them up. Place back in freezer for 30 minutes, then repeat scraping. Continue for 2 to 4 hours, scraping and freezing, until mixture resembles shaved ice. Serve immediately with chopped blackberries for garnish.
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