Sangria Granita

I’ve made Granita many times. The first time I fearfully followed the recipe. Me a seasoned cook scared to mess up! Well it came out great and since then I’ve made many varieties including Blood Orange, to White Sangria and Peaches.
Granita, Also known as ‘granita siciliana‘, originated from Sicily. In most of Sicily, it has a coarser, more crystalline texture. Other areas throughout Italy have different desired textures. This is acquired as a result of different freezing techniques. It is related to sorbet and Italian ice and as stated before goes from chunky in the west to smooth in the west.
This particular one is unbelievably simple and shows that you can literally use whatever you have on hand to create an elegant easy desert on short notice. I should mention taking the freezing time in to account! That’s the
only issue with my “short notice”.

Granita Sangria
½ a Lemon
1 Orange
2 cups water
1 Cup fruit juice
6 tablespoons sugar
Cinnamon
5 Cloves
2 Cups Red Wine
Heat Water, Sugar, Cloves to a boil remove from heat.  Here if you choose to you may also zest the fruits and add it.  The zest from the fruits will give an added depth to your Granita!

As soon as its not too hot add fruit juice, lemon juice, fresh orange juice cinnamon and set aside to cool. You can adjust the taste to make it sweeter if you like.
Place in a large shallow pan and add the two cups of red wine. Swirl the liquid in the pan and place in the freezer.

As the mixture starts to freeze use a fork to constantly swirl the mixture. Do not allow it to get solid. This is the hardest part of the whole thing but
you must pay attention to avoid having one big block.

It will look like this

And then like this

And finally, the finished product.

I serve granita in Martini glasses rimmed in organic brown sugar. Here’s one of my faves to serve it in! Enjoy...