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Lemon Granita. It's ice Jim, but not as we know it


We first discovered Granita when we went to Sicily with the Levy family. We loved Sicily and had such a good time that a few years later we went back with my Mum, and brother Steve and family.
One of the little rituals that we got into (that I think we have to thank Nushi Levy for) was to go to a litttle local beach quite late on in the afternoon when the pretty fierce Sicilian rays had died down a bit. We had the bit of the beach that didn’t have seried ranks of sunloungers on, pretty much to ourselves, if you didn’t count the odd couple heavy petting that is.
Anyway, one of the favourite parts of the trip was Lemon Granita. Granita is basically flavoured shaved ice. However the simplicity of the description belies the joy of the dish. In Sicily the granita came in a plastic cup with a half straw/half spoon kind-of-thang, which enabled you to suck up every last drop of the remaining cold,sticky,sweet,sour deliciousness.
Some time after we got back I tried the recipe out from the River Cafe. It’s simplicity itself and always gets a good reaction from adults and kids alike.
It goes well with fresh raspberries, you can also pour a glug of iced vodka over it at the last minute. It’s great at the end of a rich dinner but it’s also equally delicious in a cup with a teaspoon, and on a hot day, if you squint you might just imagine that East Molesey is Castelvetrano .... or maybe not.

Ingredients

500 ml water
100g caster sugar
250ml lemon jiuice (8-10 lemons)
finely grated zest of 1 lemon

In a saucepan bring the water and sugar to the boil and cook for about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat allow to cool and then add lemon juice and zest.

Pour into shallow trays or old ice cream tubs and put into the freezer. Allow to partially freeze, and after about 20 - 30 miins take it out and mash up the crystals with a fork, then return to the freezer. Repeat this process every 20-3- mins until you have a hard but crystalline granita. This will take a couple of hours or so.

To serve, take out of freezer leave to go al little soft (5 mins) and then scrape surface to create shavings and load a bowl genorously and serve immediately.

It's great on its own but you could add a few fresh raspberries or blackberries too
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