Kitchen Idiot Howie Rumberg poses in his apartment as his wife Izabela looks on. (AP Photo/Howie Rumberg)

"How about we make some gratiné?" I asked Izabela, who was trying to look cool lounging in our son's inflatable kiddie pool, her arms and legs awkwardly flopped over the sides.

"Why would you want to cook something hot?"

"Isn't gratiné the ices you scrape?"

"You mean granita," she said with a laugh. "That's a good idea."

Normally, I'd have been embarrassed by my food phrase faux-pas but I wasn't the one squeezed into the pale-blue pool with clouds printed on it. And despite my mix up, it was a good idea. Granita is Italian-style ices that have a granular texture, and they're very easy to make.

Don't get me wrong, I love rich and creamy ice cream, but when you're feeling lethargic in the heavy, humid heat, there's nothing better than a scoop of ethereal ices, melting in a burst of flavor on your tongue and sending a chill down your spine.

Just hearing that it's going to be in the 90s unleashes a rush of memories: using the wooden "spoon" to scrape Marinos Italian Ices out of the yellow and green cups; watching the Dominican "icy" guys putting the shavings from a huge block of ice into a paper cone, then dousing it with one of the dozen flavored liquids -- I was always partial to coconut -- kept in glass bottles on their carts; and, of course, scoops of rainbow ices from the local pizza place that drip down your arms.

Sweet cold-headache heaven.

Well, granita is better. It's better because you use real ingredients, not the indefinable supersweet artificial flavors of the ices from childhood -- although who didn't love flipping the Marinos ices over to get to the syrupy concentrate on the bottom.

Traditionally, granitas are fruit inspired, but I've seen flavors as outlandish as tomato and cucumber. Anything that can be pureed in a food processor would probably work, but I guarantee you I won't be attempting meat granita anytime soon.

Unlike ice cream, which requires a machine and is fairly expensive to make, granita is something you can prepare on a whim and at little cost. No matter the flavor (we're only talking sweet now) you'll need little more than water and sugar. Lemon cuts the sweetness and gives it a bit of zing.

Recipes frequently call for an alcohol like wine, Limoncello, vodka and Kahlua. A melon recipe by Wolfgang Puck required Midori, the green melon flavored liqueur.

Granita is so simple to scratch together Izabela left me alone in the kitchen. Wanting it on a heat wave-induced whim, I had to choose my flavor based on what was in the fridge. I had watermelon. Here's the ingredient list for the recipe I used from foodnetwork.com:

-- 4 cups seedless watermelon chunks.

-- 1/2 cup sugar.

-- Juice of 1 lemon.

That's all. There's no water in this recipe because watermelon has more than enough.

You combine the melon, sugar and lemon in the food processor and puree. Pour the mixture into a shallow pan and put into the freezer.

Note: If you come across a recipe that says to heat the watermelon with water and sugar before blending, don't. Heating dissolves the sugar but as Claudia Fleming, pastry chef and co-owner of the North Fork Table and Inn, said when I asked if it's worth adding the step, "Cooking watermelon is disgusting." The extra water will dilute the flavor, too.

The final step and key to making granita, what makes it unique in the world of ices, is scraping the mixture several times while it freezes to create the crystaline-like texture. All this means is take a fork every hour and scrape the ice as it forms. This will prevent it from turning into a block of ice. You want flecks.

Sugar — and especially alcohol — lowers the temperature at which water freezes so even if you get a bit lazy and forget to scrape along the way you'll be OK. Alcoholic granita stays slightly slushy, which I like.

Sure, pouring some apple juice into an ice-cube tray is about as simple as it gets, but there's nothing fun about licking a hunk of ice. Granita is crunchy and fluffy, if you scoop it delicately — think plunging your hand into fresh dry powder as opposed to hard-pack snow. The tiny crystals disappear almost immediately, tickling your tongue.

I can't think of a better way to beat the heat — although that kiddie pool is looking pretty good, too.

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More Kitchen Idiot: Baking brownies, The advantages of farmers' markets, Homemade Big Macs and The proper way to grill.

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Kitchen idiot Howie Rumberg is an asap staff reporter. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

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