Sicilian Lemon Granita

Zest all four lemons directly into a small saucepan, then juice them and set the juice aside in a separate bowl — do not add the juice to the pan.

Add 240 ml of water and the caster sugar to the saucepan with the zest. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring until the sugar fully dissolves, about 3–4 minutes. Remove from heat immediately once the liquid is clear.

Pour the hot syrup through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl, pressing the zest to extract every drop of citrus oil. Discard the solids.

Stir in the reserved lemon juice, the pinch of sea salt, and 480 ml of cold water. Taste — the mixture should be pleasantly tart and slightly sweeter than you want the finished granita to be.

Pour the mixture into a shallow, wide metal or glass baking dish (roughly 30 × 20 cm) and place flat in the freezer.

Freeze for 45 minutes, then scrape the entire surface vigorously with a fork, dragging from the edges inward to break up any ice forming at the sides. Return to the freezer.

Repeat the scraping process every 30 minutes for a further 2–2.5 hours, until the granita is entirely made up of loose, dry, separate crystals with no liquid remaining.

Serve immediately in chilled glasses or bowls. If the granita has frozen solid, let it sit at room temperature for 5 minutes before scraping to restore the proper crystalline texture.