When our household went to Sicily years in the past, we have been thrilled to find the area’s conventional breakfast: granita spooned onto a brioche or, if we we have been feeling it, granita spooned onto a brioche with whipped cream.
As Renato Poliafito writes in Dolci!, his pleasant new cookbook of Italian sweets, “When the Sicilian solar is ablaze…beginning your day with a recent brioche bun and a flavored granita, meant to be spooned in icy piles over the bread, isn’t a lot idyllic as it’s obligatory.”
Renato, proprietor of the favored Brooklyn café Ciao, Gloria, additionally factors out that granita, a semi-frozen “spoon dessert,” couldn’t be simpler to make. It requires fruit, water, sugar — and possibly a delicate flavoring, like an herb — plus just a few hours of hands-off time. In case you are on the lookout for a strategy to optimize peak-season fruit, or salvage fruit that’s on its final legs, granita is your transfer. And never only for breakfast. I made Renato’s Blackberry-Sage granita (recipe under) over the weekend and spooned it into ice cream bowls for an after-dinner deal with.
Dolci! is attractive and jam-packed with traditional (and traditional with a twist) Italian and Italian-American baked desserts, “the shared traditions of nonnas from Bensonhurst to Bologna.” Subsequent up: Italian Ricotta Cheesecake. Or possibly that Aperol Spritz Cake? Or Tartuffe, or Pannettone Bread Pudding…or or or…
Blackberry and Sage Granita
From Dolci! American Baking with an Italian Accent by Renato Poliafito
12 ounces (340 grams) blackberries
1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (4 grams) recent sage leaves
In a blender, mix the blackberries, sugar, sage, and 1 1/2 cups (340 grams) water. Mix on excessive till clean. Set a fine-mesh sieve over and 8-by-8-inch (20 by 20 cm) baking pan and pour the combination via. Press on the solids with a rubber spatula to launch any remaining liquid, then discard the solids.
Press plastic wrap on the floor of the combination and freeze till icy, about 2 hours.
Use a fork to scrape right into a free combination, then freeze for an additional 2 hours earlier than scraping once more. Repeat the method another time to create a granita with small icy items. Hold frozen till able to serve.
That’s it! Thanks, Rentao.
P.S. Caramelized bananas with ice cream and a vanilla ice cream style check.
