Who doesn’t know the refreshing taste of granita? A must-have of Sicilian culture that you just can’t do without!
Before sharing a quick and easy recipe to create granita at home and in a completely artisanal way, I wanted to tell you something about the genesis of this wonderful cold dessert: the origins, most likely, go back to the Arab domination in Sicily, with the forerunner of granita called sherbet, a frozen drink flavored with fruit juices. It was made from snow that was collected during the winter in the Iblei mountains, the Nebrodi and MountEtna, and then stored in nivieri, stone constructions placed over caves. In summer, ice was taken from the nivieri to be grated and covered with fruit and flower syrups (this preparation is precisely called rattata). Later, the sherbet recipe was modified and improved by using sea salt and snow, using the latter as a coolant and no longer as an ingredient. Thus was born the sump, a kind of zinc cavity filled with the mixture and placed on an insulating bed of straw. The “eutectic mixture “-composed of two or more substances and having a melting point (temperature) lower than that of its components-frozen the contents of the well, while the rotary motion operated by a crank prevented the formation of ice crystals. Thus was born the granita, a true institution, routinely consumed every month of the year!
UNTREATED LEMON GRANITA RECIPE
Ingredients for 4 persons:
– 120 ml untreated lemon juice (about 2 lemons);
– 120 g sugar;
– 500 ml water;
– Grated peel of 1 untreated lemon. Wash the lemons and obtain the juice, which you are going to strain and put in a container. Add the sugar, water, and grated peel, and stir the mixture well until the sugar is dissolved. Pour the mixture into an ice cream tub and place in the freezer, remembering to break up the ice crystals every 30 minutes or so. Your granita is then ready to be served at any time of day, but be careful: always choose to use untreated lemons!
