Sicily: granita for breakfast

I want my Italian slushie first thing in the morning

Note: I actually forgot to publish this when I wrote it, so here it is, six months late!

Granita: this is something I tried for the first time ever in Sicily last Autumn, and now that I have experienced it, there’s no going back. I’ve eaten ice cream and sorbet at any time of day all my life, but I’ve never had granita - like a sophisticated slushie - for breakfast. This is what they do in Sicily, without batting an eyelid.

The flavours of granita were generally the following wherever we went on the island: mulberry, coffee, lemon, almond and strawberry. I tried them all. Mulberry didn’t impress me much - it tasted of watery sweet nothingness, like a faint blackberry. Coffee was a delight, as was lemon (but ever so sweet). I was amazed to find that my favourite one was actually almond (mandorla) - it’s pure white, soft, and no gritty pieces of nut - just like marzipan-flavoured snow. We visited the ancient town of Noto full of churches and stately squares to eat granita in a gorgeous cafe that looked like it hadn’t changed since the 1930’s - Caffè Sicilia. We saw some nuns tucking into decadent cakes at a corner table.

Caffe Sicilia’s granita di mandorla (almond) with panna (cream) and brioche

Granita is a serious breakfast choice. It has a ritual. You get a bowl of cloud-soft granita and you can opt for its accompaniments: a pillowy brioche and a separate bowl of cream (panna). Tear a chunk of brioche, dab on some of the granita and top with cream. Push this heavenly parcel into your mouth and boom! It’s the maddest combo - soft brioche scented with orange flower, icy sweetness and cream all combined like a perfect ice cream sandwich. You do this for every bite.

Another memorable granita experience was at a parlour in the sleepy seaside town of Fontane Bianche, run by an elderly couple who only had one flavour that day: lemon. The wife served up scoops of icy slush into little cups from a stainless steel pot behind the counter. A TV was blaring in the corner. Her husband grinned at us from behind the counter, where a small but delicious selection of gelati awaited: pistachio, chocolate, hazelnut. A small dog skittered about clicking its claws on the stone flooring. We sat outside in the warm sun. The lemon granita was so sweet but also so tangy it made the insides of my mouth hurt. In a good way.

You could say I went ‘method’ on my granita exploration. Some afternoons I got quite bad tempered if it wasn’t available. I got so obsessed with it that even at Palermo airport, ahead of my flight home, I got a final coffee flavoured one with brioche just outside of security. A guy at the next table eating a melted cheese panini peered at me like I was a maniac. At least I wasn’t eating antisocial peeled boiled eggs out of a tupperware, like a lady that sat opposite us later on in the boiling hot departure lounge. She ate six, frantically, one after the other.

Coffee granita at the airport

Mulberry granita - quite underwhelming, not much flavour at all

Lemon granita melting in the heat…I believe the restaurant owner poured over some kind of Grappa??