Black mulberry granita
Product included in the national list of traditional agri-food products (PAT)
Typology PAT : Fresh pasta and products from the bakery, biscuits, pastry and confectionery
Technical data sheet of the traditional agri-food product (PAT)
In the sumptuous Sicilian ice cream tradition, slushes, frozen fruit and sugar juices similar to sorbets, but with a softer consistency, have a place apart. Their history is linked to the custom, started by the Greeks and continued by the Romans, of exploiting the snows of Etna, stored in wells and caves, for the conservation of food. The first refreshing blends probably date back to that time, but it was the Arabs who made sorbet an art that has survived to this day. For granita, once the snow was sprinkled with the chosen aroma (lemon juice, strawberry or prickly pear pulp, coffee and so on) and placed in a tub that was turned by hand in a well filled with coarse salt to facilitate the formation of ice. Today modern batch freezers are used, but the principle is the same.
Among the more traditional preparations of the Messina area it is worth mentioning the mulberry granita, made with the small fruits of the black mulberries whose leaves were once given to adult silkworms.
As in all of Sicily, granita is not just a greedy dessert or a classic summer "snack", but an element of breakfast, which has at least the same dignity as brioche.
Source Pat Cards: Sicily Region
Card insertion: Ignazio Caloggero
Photo: Di Dedda71 - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4661946
Information contributions: Web, Region of Sicily
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