Watermelon Granita
There are so many recipes to share for summer, a peach crostata, a pico de gallo with fresh tomatoes from the garden, cold cucumber soup, making your own ice cream, the list goes on and on. The following recipe is tried and true and nothing says summer like a good watermelon, right?
To celebrate National Watermelon, on August 3rd, make this delicious granita. You won’t believe how good something so simple can be. Make it early in the day or evening so you can be sure to be around to scrape and put back in the freezer to give it the perfect texture.
Ingredients:
1 to 1 ½ lbs seedless watermelon
1 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons lime juice (or lemon juice)
Directions:
Put the pieces of watermelon in a blender along with the sugar and lime juice. You may need to do two batches. Strain and put in glass or metal container. Freeze for about 2 hours then take out of the freezer and break up the ice crystals with a fork. You’ll see a lot of crystals, especially around the edges, so break and mix making sure there are no large lumps left. Repeat this every ½ hour for the next 2 hours or so until the ice crystals are fluffy and have the texture of shaved ice.
If you want to get crazy you can add tequila or vodka, as longs as it’s just for adults. If your watermelon is sweet enough you may need to not add sugar though sugar helps it not to freeze like a chunk of ice. This granita goes great with sweetened condensed milk on top though you can serve plain with a mint leaf on top. The word granita comes from the word granite because it’s supposed to look like crushed stone!
