Italian Ice

The Italian Alps where the snow and ice are plentiful lead to many Italian dessert creations using fruit and ice. Sorbet, and Granita were most likely the predecessor to the Italian Ice we know today, and both of those most likely came from the Romans who ate ice and honey. As with most recipes, there is some back and forth over who created it, but the most popular belief is Sicilians created it. Research the topic for a few minutes and you will find pretty solid arguments for each area.
Over the years, especially as of late in the United States Italian ice has become an artificially flavored, artificially colored, and over sugared dessert more reminiscent of a slushy than what it was originally intended.
The following Italian Ice recipe is simple, nutritious, refreshing, and can be eaten between courses as a pallet cleanser or at the end of a meal as a dessert. Kids will also love it as a summer treat, you can add other fruit and juices as well to create some flavorful ices.
To make this Italian Ice recipe, start by heating two cups of water in a small sauce pan until it simmers. Dissolve the sugar in the hot water and add a pinch of salt. Add the rest of the water to the mixture then refrigerate the pot until the lemon water is cool.
Add lemon juice, lemon rind, and lemon extract to the water. Transfer the liquid to a non reactive container and place in the freezer.
Mix the liquid with a fork every half an hour until the mixture is frozen but still slightly slushy, this will take about two hours. You can continue to freeze and stir until almost impossible to stir, this will result in a more firm Italian Ice but still very good. Stirring is important, without stirring it will just end up being an ice block that has separated sections of water and lemon.
Serve the lemon ice with a fresh mint leaf.
As mentioned above, adding different fresh squeezed juice can add a lot of color, flavor, and excitement to this recipe. Raspberry, blueberry, and blackberry juice either on their own or mixed with this lemon based Italian Ice recipe have all turned out great. Apple juice, orange juice, grape juice, and grapefruit juice all were very good too just not nearly as colorful, which to adults doesn’t matter as much.
Have fun exploring and trying different combinations, let us know what you came up with!