Strawberry Lemonade Granita

With just three ingredients and no special equipment needed, this strawberry lemonade granita recipe will become your favorite summertime treat.

I used to watch Food Network when I was home sick from school. I loved Ina- weird, I know- I didn’t care for Rachel Ray, and I always enjoyed Giada. My mom was put off by her Bratz doll hair and the amount of cleavage she showed, but I loved the food she cooked. One of the things I remember watching her make several times is frozen granitas.

I don’t recall a single recipe she used, or even the technique really. Mostly, I remember Giada putting the concoction in the freezer and scraping it with a fork a few times over the next several hours until a fluffy, mostly-frozen treat emerged. When I realized recently that I wanted to channel my strawberry obsession into a granita, it brought back memories of watching Giada make them.

I just made this recipe up as I went. It’s based on my homemade strawberry sauce, so I only made a couple tweaks. The end result is a sweet and wonderfully tart icy treat. The berries are the star with their bright flavor, but the lemon is right there, too, offering the ideal amount of pucker. The entire strawberry lemonade granita is light, refreshing, and the perfect way to beat the heat this summer.

Strawberry Lemonade Granita

Inspired by Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients

1 lb. strawberries
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. lemon juice

Instructions

Dice strawberries. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the berries, sugar, and lemon juice. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until the strawberries are tender and there’s a lot of liquid in the pan. Puree the mixture using a blender or, like me, an immersion blender. If you don’t have either of those and you don’t mind berry pieces, simply use a potato masher to squish the berries as much as possible.

Allow sauce to cool and then pour it in a 9 x 9 inch baking dish. Cover the dish in plastic wrap and place in the freezer. Freeze for four to five hours. Every hour or so, remove the dish from the freezer and use a fork to gently stir the frozen chunks that form. Press the strawberry mixture flat again in the dish before returning it to the freezer.

When the strawberry lemonade sauce is more frozen than not, scrape it into serving dishes and enjoy. If it freezes too solid, set the dish on the counter for several minutes until the mixture is soft enough to scrape.

Are you as obsessed with strawberry recipes as I am? You’ll love my no-churn strawberry ice cream or these strawberry limeade cupcakes.

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