Frozen Dessert

Since most people don’t have a commercial Hawaiian shaved ice machine, this recipe has been adapted to make ice pops. Use molds or ice cube trays with standard wooden ice pop sticks, plastic spoons, swizzle sticks, or even chopsticks.

You can make sorbet by simply freezing fruit and pushing it through a juicer. That’s it. While plain fruit in season is quite sweet on its own, you can top the sorbet with maple syrup or any other sweetener of your choice. Toppings could include chopped nuts, cacao nibs, or whipped cream. If the fruit freezes for more than an hour, it be will be too hard, and you will need to thaw it a bit before it can pass smoothly through the juicer.

I like to think of this as a Mexican banana split, which isn’t as crazy as it sounds when you realize how important and prevalent ice cream is in Mexico. Quick, easy, and irresistible—you will have this dessert on the table faster than anyone can eat it, which is quite a statement considering how unbelievably mouth-watering it is.

Kids, naturally, love this ice cream. And it’s easy enough that kids can put it together themselves with a minimum of help from Mom or Dad. To make it even more fun, layer in a swirl of their favorite jam.

Tartufo means “truffle” in Italian and refers to how these ice cream mounds look when dipped in pure chocolate, which forms a neat, crispy coating for a favorite ice cream. You can make them any size you wish, but I usually make mine about golf ball size (about 2 ounces, 60 g, each) and serve two per person. The trick to making Tartufi is to work rather quickly and neatly. Keep the ice cream mounds in the freezer until the absolute last moment prior to dipping.

Just about every gelateria in Italy features a bin of stracciatella, vanilla ice cream with chocolate “chips.” It results from a technique that clever Italians devised for pouring warm, melted chocolate into cold ice cream. The flow of chocolate immediately hardens into streaks, which get shredded (stracciato) into “chips” as the ice cream is stirred. The trick to stracciatella is to pour it into your ice cream maker in a very thin stream during the last moment of churning. If your aim isn’t very good, or your ice cream machine has a small opening, transfer the melted chocolate into a measuring cup with a pouring spout. (If you’re using a microwave to melt the chocolate, simply melt the chocolate in the measuring cup.) The trick is to pour it not on the turning dasher (mixing blade) but into the ice cream itself. You can also drizzle it over the ice cream as you layer it into the storage container, stirring it very slightly while you’re pouring.

To make the tastiest and most colorful granita, be sure to select kiwifruits that are tender and soft to the touch. They’ll have the most vibrant green flesh and the fullest, most tropically tinged flavor.

Either cantaloupe or honeydew melon makes a wonderful granita. Use the best you find at the market. Be sure to heft a few and take a sniff to find the sweetest specimen.

I know people who are grapefruit dependent. They’re addicted to starting their day with half a pink grapefruit. They absolutely have to have one, and frankly, that’s a little odd to me. It’s not that I don’t like grapefruits, and I often buy them with the intention of following in the healthy footsteps of my grapefruit-dependent friends. But the next morning I wake up and honestly can’t seem to face anything but a much-needed, soothing pot of coffee and a couple of nonconfrontational slices of buttered toast. Later in the day, those pink grapefruits become more and more appealing though, and I’ll slice one in half and greedily attack the sections, slurping up the plentiful juice while perched over the sink to contain the mess from my assault. So perhaps I do have some grapefruit issues of my own, but I wait until later in the day before I succumb and take my tumble off the citrus wagon.

I love the word spremuta, which means “freshly pressed orange juice” in Italian. At any caffè, if you order one, you’ll be brought a tall, vivid red glass of juice served with a few packets of sugar and a long, slender spoon alongside. Although years ago Americans were astonished when confronted with blood orange juice, this colorful citrus fruit has become common stateside and can be found in many supermarkets and farmer’s markets. When sliced open, they reveal a brilliantly colored interior, and like snowflakes, each one intrigues me, since no two seem to be colored alike. The Moro variety of blood oranges is the most intensely colored, but other varieties, like Sanguinelli and Tarocco, make remarkably colorful granita as well.

Perhaps the most eye-popping of all the granitas, this one has a color that perfectly matches the dazzling flavor of the raspberries. If using frozen raspberries, let them thaw before you purée them.

A few years back, while I was making a chocolate dessert during a cooking demonstration, I noticed a woman sitting in the third row was watching me with what I thought was disdain. Attempting to win her over, while everyone ate their samples I asked what she thought, and she responded matter-of-factly, “I don’t really like chocolate.” So smart-aleck me shot back, “You’re probably one of those lemon people!” To which she sheepishly nodded yes. I kept on baking and finished the class. But my accusatory words “one of those lemon people” stuck in my mind, and I worried for a long time that she might have been affronted by my comment. Years later, there she was again in my audience! I was happy to see her, since experts advocate finding resolution to traumatic events in your life (like meeting someone who doesn’t like chocolate). Attempting reparation, I asked if I had offended her several years back. She was surprised that I even remembered and said that no, she wasn’t offended in the least. In fact, she even brought me a tasty gift (not chocolate…but I’m letting that go) and then slipped off into the night. So this is my gift back to her, the mysterious lemon lover, whoever and wherever you are.

The best grapes to use for making this granita are bold-tasting varieties. Full-flavored dark Muscat grapes are perfect, as are Concord grapes, sometimes referred to by winemakers as tasting “foxy.” Speaking of winemakers, just about any grapes used for winemaking make excellent granita. Don’t use the common seedless grapes found in supermarkets, though, since they don’t have much flavor once cooked. The amount of water will depend on the type of grapes you use. Before adding the water, taste the mixture. Add the smaller amount of water, and then taste it again to see if it needs more.

Try this granita drizzled with a shot of tequila and sprinkled with a pinch of coarse salt for a Margranita.

Curiously, this granita really comes alive when a few grains of coarse salt are flecked over each serving. When I had friends over for a taste, they were surprised to see me salting their granita, but they quickly changed their minds when they tasted it. Try fleur de sel, hand-harvested salt crystals from France, or whisper-thin squares of Maldon salt, from England.

There’s a good reason mojitos have become all the rage. Made with rum and lots of fresh mint and lime juice, this lively Cuban cocktail practically begs to be made into a terrific granita. To make it more adult, drizzle a bit of extra rum over each serving and garnish with fresh mint sprigs.

Serve the delicate, rosy crystals of this granita with a pour of sparkling wine, making a rather sophisticated slushie. Or perfume it with a few drops of fragrant rosewater sprinkled over to transform it into something curiously exotic and a bit elusive.

Choose a fragrant, tasty variety of pear for this granita, such as Comice, Bartlett, or French butter. Few people think of pairing pears with chocolate, but it’s a surprisingly good combination, and once you taste it, you’ll wish you’d known about it sooner. Don’t hesitate to use one of my Perfect Pairings that follow the recipe to make up for lost time.

The arrival of cranberries in the fall magically coincides with the holiday food shopping frenzy. A wonder of nature? Or just good timing? Regardless, I’m happy whenever I find cranberries in abundance. Their flavor is invigorating and restorative, which is probably why they’re so popular around the time of year when many of us could use help after overindulging in copious holiday feasts.

If you’re looking for a chocolate dessert that’s fudgy and festive without being fussy and filling, here it is. Using a top-quality cocoa powder and just the right amount of dark chocolate ensures that this granita will satisfy any and all chocolate lovers.