Roasted grape granita

Please make this tonight. Tomorrow its meant to be even hotter in London, and I cannot tell you how deliciously refreshing this granita is. I repeat – make this tonight and tomorrow when you get home from work you can sit with your feet up and savour a  large bowl of this sweet, frozen delight. Granita is typically made with sweetened pureed fruit but if you use a naturally sweet fruit like grapes then you can omit sugar entirely. All you need is a punnet, or two, of red or black grapes (fresh ones or ones that have been languishing in the fridge all week). They are the sole ingredient here and they really shine.

To make this you simply roast the grapes in the oven for around 25 minutes which helps to harden the skins and intensify the flavour. Roasting fruit draws out the water and helps caramelize the natural sugars.I love roasted fruit – roasted apples topped with cinnamon in the winter, roasted peaches with coconut cream in the summer and then there are these..roasted grapes. They are delicious as a snack, or mashed on-top of thick bread slathered in goats cheese. YUM…

Once roasted all you have to do is blend them either in a smoothie machine or using a stick blender, sieve and freeze. Every couple of hours you then mash up the freezing mix with a fork…although I forgot to do this and i simply removed it from the freezer today, waited 10 minutes and mashed it up.
The pulp doesn’t go into the granita but please don’t throw it away – its is sweet and juicy and delicious and is perfect stirred into porridge or yogurt, bircher muesli or even added to a cocktail.

Ingredients
500g Black or red grapes

Method
Place the grapes into a baking dish and roast for 25 mins
Allow to cool for 10 minutes before blending well
Pour the mixture into a sieve that is placed over a sealable container
Using the back of a spoon, press the mixture through until you separated the juice from the pulp
Place the juice mix into the freezer in a sealed container and fork through every few hours
Enjoy