This ice-cold granita couldn’t be more refreshing on a hot summers day. Best served with a good helping of sunshine!
Ingredients:
150 g/ ¾ cup granulated sugar
grated zest of 2 limes
100 ml/scant ½ cup freshly squeezed lime juice
90 g/4 ½ cups fresh mint (I like to use apple mint)
lime slices, to serve
SERVES 8
Pour 600 ml/2 1⁄2 cups cold water into a small saucepan, add the sugar and lime zest and bring the mixture to a simmer. Cook, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved.
Add half the mint (there’s no need to chop or remove stalks) to the saucepan, then take it off the heat. Cover with a lid and allow to stand for 10 minutes, then remove the lid and let the mixture cool to room temperature.
Once cool, strain the mixture through a sieve/strainer into a large jug/ pitcher, pressing firmly on the mint to extract all the flavour. Stir the lime juice into the mint syrup and then pour into an airtight lidded freezer container, 30 x 15 cm/12 x 6 in.
Place the granita in the freezer, then check it after 1 hour. Once it begins to freeze around the edges, take a fork and stir the mixture, breaking up the frozen parts near the edges into smaller chunks and raking them towards the centre.
Return the container to the freezer, then check the mixture every 30 minutes, stirring each time and breaking up any large chunks into small pieces with a fork, until you have fine crystals of granita. If at any time the granita freezes too hard, simply leave it out at room temperature for a few minutes until it softens enough to be stirred again with a fork, and rake it back into crystals. Then return it to the freezer.
Serve in small glasses decorated with the remaining extra sprigs of mint and lime slices.
For more recipes to try this summer, check out Lemons and Limes by Ursula Ferrigno.