Our cookbook of the week is Bitter Honey: Recipes and Stories from Sardinia by Letitia Clark. Tomorrow, we’ll feature an interview with the author.
To try another recipe from the book, check out: Slow-cooked zucchini with mint, chili and almonds , and linguine with lemon, basil, pecorino and mascarpone .
Easier to make than ice cream, and even more refreshing, granita is the ideal ending for a summer meal. Letitia Clark’s Campari and blood orange version — one of two in Bitter Honey (the other is watermelon-mint) — is bitter-sweet and especially reinvigorating.
As well-suited as Campari is to being an aperitif — “it complements salty things, green olives or plain crisps, and it sharpens the senses and awakens the palate for what is to follow” — it makes an equally enjoyable finisher.
“I’m a big fan of granita because you don’t need special ice cream equipment, and it’s incredibly easy and very lazy,” says Clark. “You just literally chuck everything in a tub, put it in the freezer, and then hash it up with a fork. You can’t go wrong.”
CAMPARI AND BLOOD ORANGE GRANITA
Granita al Campari e Arancia Sanguigna
150 g (3/4 cup) superfine sugar (see note)
Finely grated zest of 1 blood orange
1 small bottle of Campari Soda (100 mL), or 4 tbsp (60 mL) pure Campari
400 mL (1 3/4 cups) blood orange juice, strained
Juice 1 lemon
Step 1
In a small saucepan over a low heat, mix the sugar with the grated zest and the Campari, stirring until it has dissolved. Bring to the boil and boil for 2 minutes then remove from the heat.
Step 2
Pour the blood orange juice into the syrup, mix well and add the lemon juice. Taste for seasoning.
Step 3
Pour into a shallow container and freeze, removing it a couple of times after an hour or two to scrape with a fork (see note).
Serves: 4
Notes: Blood oranges vary wildly in flavour, so it is essential that you taste this and adjust the sweetness accordingly.
Pour into a shallow container and put in the freezer. Mash it up with a fork every time you think of it. Allow at least 7 hours (depending on your freezer) before it is frozen.
Excerpted from Bitter Honey: Recipes and Stories from Sardinia by Letitia Clark. Text copyright © Letitia Clark, 2020. Published by Hardie Grant Books, an imprint of Hardie Grant Publishing. Reproduced by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020
