Granitas

Here's a trio of Granitas, the Italian ice with attitude. Lacking the sophistication and smoothness of a sorbet, Granitas are smashing smashes of icy sharp texture and arctic tastes, heaped shavings of flavoured ice piled up in a pre-chilled serving glass. It’s worth giving them a single stir as they freeze, about an hour into freezing, depending on how aggressive your freezer is, just to stop the mixture settling out - but don't over-smooth things, a Granita should be jaggy!


Coffee Granita

Ingredients

• 200ml strong coffee
• 1 orange, juice and zest
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• Generous shaving of nutmeg
  

Peel the zest into curls using a potato peeler and pour the hot coffee over the curls to allow them to steep. Mix in the brown sugar and stir to dissolve, then the nutmeg. Leave to cool, then strain the mixture and freeze it.

Pineapple Granita

Ingredients

• 100g fresh pineapple, chunked
• 200ml water
• 2 tsp brown sugar

Whizz, strain, freeze.

Orange Granita

Ingredients

• 200g fresh pineapple, chunked
• 250g orange segments
• 3 limes, juiced
• 100g brown sugar
• 4cm piece cassia (or cinnamon peel)
  
• 275ml water

Boil the cassia in 100ml of the water for five minutes, then remove the cassia and stir in the sugar to dissolve. Add the rest of the water and pour the mixture into a blender, adding the lime juice, pineapple and orange segments (take care there are no pips or pith left on the orange segments and do save as much of the juice as you can when you’re segmenting the orange!) and whizzing. Strain and freeze.