When I was last in Italy I fell in love with lemon ice (the Italians call such ices granitas). The Italians make ices using almost anything from strawberries to mangos to peaches, but my favorite was lemon. Cold, deliciously tart and refreshing it was the perfect snack in the middle of a hot afternoon. Although this recipe is scaled fro two servings, I highly recommend doubling or tripling it. (Larger image.) Serves 2.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Yield: Serves 2.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 heaping Tbsp. lemon zest
Preparation:
1. Bring water, sugar and zest to a boil in a small sauce pan, stirring to dissolve sugar. Remove from heat immediately.
2. Cool to room temperature then add lemon juice and pour into a baking dish. Place, uncovered. in the freezer.
3. Wait two hours, then every hour, remove the mix from the freezer and whisk, scraping ice from the sides.
4. Do this for 4 to 6 hours until mixture becomes thick, then switch to a fork for scraping and mixing.
5. The result, if you can time it right, is just slightly mushy, but it's ok if it's fairly hard, the idea, though, is to keep the texture granular.
You can find a tutorial on freezing granitas here.