Granita: Sicily's Semi-Frozen Dessert

Granita is a semi-frozen Italian dessert made from sugar, water, and flavorings, distinguished by a coarse, crystalline texture. It originated in Sicily and is now found throughout Italy in varying consistencies. Its history traces to the Arab rule of Sicily beginning in the 9th century, when sherbet — a fruit drink flavored with rose water and chilled with ice — was introduced. Before mechanical refrigeration, Sicilians relied on snow that workers called nivaroli collected in winter from Mount Etna and the Nebrodi and Peloritani mountains, stored, and grated in summer to be flavored with syrups and fruit. This places granita among the historical ancestors of modern ice cream. The defining feature is what separates it from sorbet: granita is not churned. Instead the freezing mixture is scraped repeatedly, producing large ice crystals and a flaky, snow-like body rather than the smooth, air-incorporated texture of sorbet. Texture varies across Sicily — chunkiest on the west coast and in Palermo, nearly as smooth as sorbet in the east. Traditional flavors include lemon, mandarin, coffee, almond, pistachio, jasmine, mint, and mulberry. In Sicilian summers, granita is eaten for breakfast paired with a brioche col tuppo, a warm citrus- or vanilla-scented brioche topped with a small knob of dough that is dipped into the chilled granita. Peak season is the hottest months of July and August. Granita is frequently confused with sorbet and ice cream but differs from both chiefly in its lack of incorporated air and its grainier consistency, from which it takes its name.