Prickly pears—or fichi d’India, as they are called in Italy—grow wild and abundant in Sicily and are eaten simply as a fruit, as a salad, or churned into a dessert, as in this recipe for granita. In the Southwestern United States, the prickly pear grows abundant and wild, and when I visited the Salinas Valley in California, I was delighted to see acres upon acres of this cactus plant growing for commercial harvesting. The Mexican culture uses it in their cuisine, but I was especially happy to see a demand for it here in the States. When you find it nice and ripe in your market, buy it and make this simple and delicious granita with it.

　　

Ingredients

serves 6 to 8

　　10 prickly pears

　　Juice of 1 orange

　　Juice of 1 lemon

　　1/4 cup sugar

　　

Step 1

Peel the skin from prickly pears (wear plastic gloves). Slice the flesh into pieces, then gently push the pear flesh through a medium-holed sieve, pressing the flesh and juice with a wooden spoon or spatula into a bowl, leaving the seeds behind in the sieve. You should have about 2 cups juice.

　　

Step 2

Mix the orange juice, lemon juice, and sugar into the prickly-pearjuice in a bowl, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Pour the granita juice into an 8-inch square metal pan (or a similar size; you want the granita to be an inch deep or less).

　　

Step 3

Cover, and freeze the granita until crystals begin to form on the sides of the pan, about 30 minutes. Stir and scrape crystals and granita, breaking up any solid parts with a fork. Freeze until firm, scraping mixture with fork every 30 minutes to form icy crystals.

　　

Step 4

To serve, scrape granita into chilled serving glasses.

　　Reprinted with permission from Lidia's Italy in America by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali. Copyright © 2011 by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali. Excerpted by permission of Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. Buy the full book from Amazon or Bookshop.