Stephanie
Tantillo Fucile
Come June, the shops open their doors in Sicily and everyone hits up their favorite spot for a granita after the beach. When I was the pastry chef at Becco, I made different granita's every single day in the summer. They are so simple, endless in flavor combinations, and usually all you really want on a New York City hot and humid day. Granita is essentially a shaved ice, grainer than sorbet and typically a lot less sugar too. I love using seasonal fruits here to let them shine! In this one, peaches and basil come together beautifully on their own and then combined with blueberries it ends up being really layered in flavors, by only using a few ingridients.
Peach Granita with Blueberry Sauce
Granita:
6 Ripe peaches, peeled, pitted and chopped
Zest of 1 lemon, and 1 orange
60 grams sugar
118 ml water
Fresh basil leaves, about 8
Blueberry sauce:
200 g fresh blueberries
20 grams dark brown sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
Methods
Granita:
Blend everything, except basil, together in a food processor and blend until smooth. Then stir in basil and place in loaf pan or freezer safe bowl. Every 30 minutes scrap with fork to create ice crystals.
Sauce:
Set aside a small amount of berries for garnish.
On low heat in a suace pot cook the blueberries with sugar until they begin to break down. Stir in lemon juice
Assembley: Before serving give granita a final scrape and scoop into chilled glass, top with cooled sauce and uncooked fresh blueberries