MULBERRY GRANITA

(Granita di Gelso)

Serves 12 to 15

3.4 litres/6 pints fresh black mulberries

1.6 litres/2¾ pints water

450 g/1 lb sugar

Whipped cream

You cannot wash mulberries without losing all the juice, but since they are not grown commercially I doubt that they ever get sprayed.

Put the mulberries in a saucepan with 750 ml/1¼ pints of water, bring to a boil, and simmer for about 30 minutes. Allow to cool.

Meanwhile, make a syrup by simmering 450 g/1 lb of sugar with 850 ml/1½ pints of water for 30 minutes and then allow this to cool too.

Pass the mulberries, with all their juice, through the fine disk of a food mill, and add the resulting liquid to the sugar syrup. When everything has cooled to room temperature, pour into a shallow aluminium tray, and proceed as in granita di limone. Serve with whipped cream—in this case less really isn’t more! This will keep a month or more in the freezer.

The sarbat of the Saracens was behind all of these, but one kind of ice, very difficult to find nowadays unless you make it yourself, is a concentrate of the Arabian Nights. It is often called granita di scurzunera, but a more accurate name would be granita di gelsomino.