Lemon Basil Granita

A cool and very refreshing ice dessert made with a tangy lemon base infused with fresh basil. A bright pairing with Prosecco and and other sparkling whites.

Basil Bullseye

I love an infused lemonade and there are so many options these days. Many find success with various fruit infusions such as strawberry and raspberry. My desire was to find an herbal flavor that is more unexpected. Several herbals combination can work with lemonade including lavender, ginger and mint. In fact, without the pairing, ginger was a favorite infusion. However, it was basil that really took the pairing to the next level with this particular Prosecco.

Wine Pairing

Original Pairing: Montelliano Prosecco

General Pairing: Prosecco, Champagne, Sparkling White Wine, Sparkling Rose

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Special Ingredients

Fresh Basil
The best way to prepare the herbal infusion is to use fresh basil leaves. I have not tried it with dried, but there a lot of essential oils and flavors lost in the drying of this herb. I used a standard Genovese Basil, but you could try various types if you have them at your disposal. I grow several purple varieties in my garden, which would also add a lot to the color.

Lemons
Standard lemons are fine. If they are under ripe, you may want to add more sugar to the recipe I would not…ever….recommend the lemon juice you buy in those fake plastic lemons or the little green bottle. They are tinny and acrid, there isn’t enough sugar in the world to fix that aftertaste. Also in a pinch, you could try lemonade and boil it down a bit.

Equipment

You don’t need fancy equipment. I made this with a few standard kitchen items. A saucepan, a plastic food container, and a sturdy metal spoon to scrape and stir/scrap as it froze. I suppose you could use an ice-cream maker to speed up the process and not have to be so watchful.

Ice-cream scoop
Very helpful to scrape it out and have a “set” serving. Because this was a small bit, I use a fairly small scoop

Zester or Peeler
Because you will pull the zest out, a larger zester or even a standard vegetable peeler works here. I would not microplane the zest unless you wanted to keep bits of it in there. That said, an array of zesting tool would give you garnishing options.

Planning the dish

This is a frozen dish – so timing is very important. It should be made the day before so it has time to full “set” but remain pliable to scoop out. One scooped, you want to serve it quickly.

Timing the Elements

1. You can make the base syrup ahead of time prior to freezing.
2. As you freeze it, you need to stir it regularly. You do not want to make it so far in advance it becomes to hard to scoop.
3. Scoop and serve immediately – trying to keep it in the freezer between any waves of serving.

Plating Tips

A couple small round scoops in a glass or small cup works well. Leverage basil leaves and lemon zest to garnishes. You can use a micro-plane to do really fine bits of lemon zest. A zesting tool can make curls of lemon rind, but that would be more for show than edible part of it. A thin slice of lemon against a basil leaf down in the cup would make a pretty backdrop to the scoops of granita.

(see Wares section for plating supplies & ideas)

Pairing Alterations

Herb Mix
If basil doesn’t mix well with your wine, you can try various herbal mixes. Ginger was a favorite, but there’s many others to try. Fresh leafy herbs are easily infused like basil, such as pineapple sage, sage, mint (lots of varieties), lavender. You could go more spice route such as allspice, cinnamon, clove.

Fruit Mix
Any fruit juice could work here as well. Trade out lemon for lime, orange, pineapple…that sounds interesting. Maybe I will do that one next.

Recipe