Strawberry Granitas

Sweet, melt-in-your-mouth granitas can be made with a variety of seasonal fruits for a refreshingly light dessert or snack all summer long. Start with this simple recipe for Strawberry Granitas and customize to taste with a variety of options. No fancy equipment needed!

My husband and I hosted a big cookout over Memorial Day weekend. It was a fun time with 30-some adults and kids. Of course, a group of that size requires a lot of food, especially when most of the kids are teenage boys!

To make my job easier, every family made a generous contribution. Someone brought a variety of drinks in a big cooler, several people brought salads, and one dear friend brought five quarts of Rita’s Italian ice.😜

After everyone had a cupful of the colorful treat, I surveyed what remained. Something possessed me to try the blue flavor–cotton candy. I’ve always been one to choose chocolate, vanilla, and other basic flavors over the fruity, candy-inspired varieties. So I was sort of “sampling” it to see what it actually tasted like, being pretty sure I wouldn’t care for it. But…sweet as it was, I loved it!

The following night, I polished off what remained of the unnaturally blue (yet rather pretty!) Italian ice and briefly considered the notion of stocking my freezer all summer long with quarts from our nearby Rita’s.

Instead of succumbing to that all-too-real temptation, I turned to the fresh berries in my fridge to create a homemade granita that’s loaded with whole fruit and decidedly less sugar.

For those who haven’t tried, a granita is a frozen Italian dessert that’s similar to sorbet and Italian ice. However, because it’s traditionally made by hand rather than a machine, the texture of a granita is coarser and flakier–sort of like fruity snow! The first spoonful offers the slightest hint of crunch before melting gloriously on the tongue.

Originally from Sicily, granitas are available all over Italy. Like many ethnic recipes, the details vary from region to region. Texture is the most obvious variant, from coarse and chunky on the west coast to smooth and sorbet-like in the eastern portion of the country.

Different freezing techniques create the variances. For example, less agitation followed by scraping or shaving produces a snow-like granita whereas regular stirring and scraping yields coarser crystals.

Sweet, melt-in-your-mouth granitas can be made with a variety of seasonal fruits for a refreshingly light dessert or snack all summer long. As the mixture freezes, simply use a fork to scrape the granita into flaky, sweet crystals and enjoy as is or in a homemade "gelati!"

This set of photos shows how the granita transforms from the soupy, straight-out-of-the-blender stage to coarse crystals after a few hours in the freezer.

The convenience of freezing via a commercial gelato machine has become increasingly popular and will yield an outcome more similar to sorbet. That said, a distinction can still be drawn, as a granita won’t be as creamy as ice cream or as compact as sorbet, even when a machine is used.

Granitas can be made in a wide range of flavors, from coffee to traditional Italian lemon. During the summer, however, it’s fun (and easy) to reach for whichever fruit is at the peak of its season, from the first sweet berries to the last of juicy peaches and nectarines.

How to customize your granitas:

Vary the fruit — strawberries, cherries, raspberries, mango are personal favorites
Adjust the sugar to taste — everyone’s perfect sweet spot is a little different, and fruit does vary in natural sweetness, so feel free to adjust up or down to taste
Enjoy as is…or add a dollop of whipped cream or scoop over vanilla ice cream for a homespun version of Rita’s gelati (Serving with something sweet is a nice offset to a tarter granita)
Vary the flavoring — lemon and lime juice cut the sweetness and round out the flavor, but you could use just the zest (for flavor without tang) or infuse the water with mint. A good balsamic vinegar could also be used instead of the citrus.
Make an adult version — I’ve drizzled Malibu rum over individual servings of granita to make a tropical, slightly slushy treat. Optionally, you could make a vodka slush, add a bit of Triple Sec, or whatever seems delicious to you.

Nothing says summer like fresh berries and Italian ice, so why not combine them into one easy-to-make treat that can be customized with your favorite fruits throughout the season. (You can even use frozen fruit if the cravings continue as the weather gets cooler!)