Homemade mint granita, perfect for beating the heat

Lovers of quick and easy recipes must absolutely try the mint granita, perfect for refreshing yourself from the summer heat.

The arrival of summer is a long-awaited moment but with the first warm weather the search for some refreshing food starts. We recommend you try the mint granita, simple to prepare, fresh and suitable for any moment of the day. You can keep it in the freezer and when needed, give it two shots with the mixer to restore its creaminess.

You can make it either using fresh mint leaves or syrup . In both cases the taste will be excellent, the only difference is the colour: with the syrup it will be more intense. As far as the calories in the mint granita are concerned, they are mainly given by the massive presence of sugar . In this case, for a glass of mint granita you will have around 175 kCal.

How to prepare the mint granita recipe

1. To prepare the fresh mint granita, start by preparing the syrup . Dissolve the sugar in a saucepan with the water and washed mint leaves and boil for 5 minutes.
2. Once cold, pour everything into a container and leave to rest for 2 hours in the refrigerator .
3. Then filter everything through a sieve.
4. Transfer the liquid into a low, wide container, place it in the freezer for 12 hours and, when ready to serve it, cut it into pieces and blend to obtain the characteristic consistency. Use a rather powerful mixer with blades at the bottom.

To prepare the mint granita with syrup, all you have to do is mix 300 g of water with 100 g of mint syrup and then transfer everything to the freezer. Also in this case, when ready to serve it, blend everything.

storage

The granita can be stored in the freezer for over 3 months .

Granita: origin and history

It seems that the origins of Sicilian granita date back to the period of Arab domination of the island. This population used to prepare sherbet , an iced drink flavored with fruit juice or rose water. In Sicily the frozen base was made up of snow collected from the mountains of the island and preserved throughout the summer in the nivieri.

The ice that formed inside these structures was then grated and served with fruit syrups. This explains why until the 1900s the preparation was known as rattata . This technique, however, survived in Roman scratching.

With the invention of the pozzetto , a sort of ancestor of the ice cream maker, the frozen mixture was kept in constant rotary motion. This feature is also present in the most modern machinery to avoid the formation of ice crystals.

In 2016 the Messina granita obtained the De.Co. brand. (Municipal Designation of Origin) while the lemon , jasmine and black mulberry granita have been included among the traditional agri-food products of the island.

Originally the granita was accompanied by slices of crunchy bread or butter biscuits, as in the Messina area. Although today it is mainly served in glasses, the best way to enjoy it is with the famous brioche with tuppo .