Today we woke up with the typical sound of the “granitaro”‘s whistle! granita time has finally come! It’s a tradition in Catania, everymorning or early afternoon you can have your delicious granita right at your home!
What are we talking about? Granita is a cold spoon dessert, typical of Sicilian breakfast and cuisine. It is a semi-frozen liquid compound prepared with water, sugar and fruit juice, or other ingredients (in addition to fruit, almond, coffee are more common).
It is often confused with sorbet, together with it can be considered one of the progenitors of ice cream and from which it differs for the grainy consistency (hence the name) and creamy at the same time even if this consistency varies from area to area and is almost indistinguishable from that of the classic sorbet in eastern Sicily.
The sugar content, historically of 25%-35%. Plattually it has been reduced by using in the production of the granita a sugar percentage of 18%20%. Unlike ice cream and sorbet, rare in the final product will be almost completely absent in the preparation it is important that the jegging takes place gradually and keeping in composing movement so that it does not separate in the form of tasteless, sugar-flavored ice crystals.
Usually served in clear glasses. Traditionally it was accompanied by Tresco and crunchy bread which has been replaced over time by the typical Sicilian brioscia prepared with levitated egg pasta and given a hemispherical shape topped with a ball (called tuppu or copppola or even nose). A “granita ‘ca brioscia” was and is the typical Sicilian breakfast, especially in summer and in coastal areas.
The coffee granita should not be confused with the so-called Sicilian ‘’ semifreddo”, a substitute for espresso coffee in the sultry summer days.
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