Snowcapped Pink Strawberry Mountains(Strawberry Granita)

Brilliant with color and pure, intense flavor! You may use frozen, thawed strawberries, but you might need to add more sugar. Cooking time is freezing time. Would you like a little history? History of Granita According to Alan Davidson in the Oxford Companion to Food, (Oxford University Press:Oxford) the appearance of "water ices" is documented to have taken place in Europe in the 17th century around the same time as ice cream. There is some undocumented conjecture that Marco Polo returned to Venice from China in the 13th century and introduced ice cream or water ices to Italy. Further it is not known for sure if water ices were first found in Spain or in Italy. In any event the mixture seemed to have migrated to London at some later, undocumented time. Granita is akin to but not quite the same as sorbet. The difference being sorbets tend to be smoother and less granular in texture. Both are made with water, a flavoring such as fruit juice or coffee and typically sweetened with sugar. Adapted from Delicious Living magazine.

• Ready In: 1 hr 15 mins
• Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 2  lbs  very ripe strawberries
• 1  cup powdered sugar, sifted (confectioner's sugar)
• 1  lemon, juice of (about 2 tbls.)
• 8  teaspoons  whipping cream (heavy cream)

Directions

1. Gently wash and hull strawberries, then put in a food processor. Process until crushed. Working in batches, press puree through a fine sieve to extract seeds, and discard seeds.
2. Whisk powdered sugar and lemon juice into strawberry juice. It should seem a little too sweet and a little too sharp; both tastes will be muted slightly when frozen.
3. Pour puree into a bowl or shallow baking dish; the mix should be no deeper than about 1". Freeze until solid, at least 1 hour.
4. Remove from freezer 5 minutes before serving. Using a sturdy scoop or spoon, mound granita into goblets and cap each with a trickle of cream. The cream will solidify, semifrozen, like a snowcap on a pink mountain!
5. Serve quickly, before it has time to melt. Enjoy!