{"id":359,"date":"2007-06-25T06:42:38","date_gmt":"2007-06-25T06:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/25\/watermelon-sorbetto-granita-from-the-perfect-scoop\/"},"modified":"2008-09-01T19:41:35","modified_gmt":"2008-09-01T19:41:35","slug":"watermelon-sorbetto-granita-from-the-perfect-scoop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/25\/watermelon-sorbetto-granita-from-the-perfect-scoop\/","title":{"rendered":"Watermelon Sorbetto Granita from The Perfect Scoop"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s officially summertime here, and with it comes the hot weather I have come to associate with Italian summers. When it&#8217;s this hot, I find it hard to eat a normal meal, and often at lunchtime I have a &#8220;meal replacement&#8221; in the form of a <strong>nice gelato or ghiacciolo<\/strong> (ice pop\/popsicle). <\/p>\n<p><a href='http:\/\/astore.amazon.com\/msadventuresinitaly-20\/detail\/1580088082\/103-1732047-5383869'  title='David Lebovitz\u2019s The Perfect Scoop'><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/06\/perfect_sm.jpg?ssl=1\" align=\"right\" alt='David Lebovitz\u2019s The Perfect Scoop' \/><\/a> The author of one of my absolute favorite blogs is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.davidlebovitz.com\/\">David Lebovitz<\/a>, who is also an <a href=\"http:\/\/astore.amazon.com\/msadventuresinitaly-20\/detail\/1580084958\/103-1732047-5383869\">author<\/a> of <a href=\"http:\/\/astore.amazon.com\/msadventuresinitaly-20\/detail\/0066212464\/103-1732047-5383869\">several<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/astore.amazon.com\/msadventuresinitaly-20\/detail\/0060191856\/103-1732047-5383869\">cookbooks<\/a>, including the latest one that&#8217;s exploding all over the internet, <a href=\"http:\/\/astore.amazon.com\/msadventuresinitaly-20\/detail\/1580088082\/103-1732047-5383869\"><strong>The Perfect Scoop<\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>I actually hesitated ordering this book, not because I live in Italy and excellent gelato is easy to come by (though it is, check out my <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/tour-del-gelato-blogroll\/https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/tour-del-gelato-blogroll\/\">Tour del Gelato for some favorites<\/a>), but because <strong>I don&#8217;t own an ice cream maker<\/strong>. In fact, I&#8217;m not sure I plan to, at least, not in the next few years. As I mentioned in my last post, I am just now getting my kitchen to the point where I have most of my favorites and a few perks (<em>PS: Be sure and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/21\/my-big-secret-and-shipping-restricted-items-to-italy\/\">add your favorite cookbook in the comments on that post<\/a>, and you could get a bag of digestive sugar in the mail!<\/em>). But I didn&#8217;t get the &#8220;required&#8221; wooden pasta-making block, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/06\/fresh-pasta-with-basil-tomatoes-and-burrata\/\">I&#8217;m making pasta on my own<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2007\/05\/07\/fresh-lemon-pasta\/\">lots of it<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p><strong>So why should I let a simple thing like not having an ice cream machine stop me?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of the first things I did with <strong>The Perfect Scoop<\/strong> was not to look at the table of contents, but to go directly to the credits page to see who did his food styling and photography. The same goes for the other cookbooks I ordered recently. I&#8217;m so visually stimulated with cooking, I need that visual prelude to give me a good goal and motivation. And David&#8217;s book is an excellent resource &#8211; the photos are beautiful (<a href=\"http:\/\/larahata.com\/\">by Lara Hata<\/a>) and I think the ratio of photos-to-recipes is also quite good &#8211; of course I would love one for every recipe &#8211; but he knows exactly when to include a photo for a recipe that&#8217;s hard to visualize or describe. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Two wonderful things about The Perfect Scoop<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the <strong>first 19 pages are a reference<\/strong> to clear up terminology, give you helpful hints about selecting quality ingredients, and give you step-by-step instructions to make his ice cream custard which is the base for most of the ice creams in the book. <\/li>\n<li>You can see the influence of his blogging in the layout of his cookbook &#8211; at the bottom of most recipes, he includes a <strong>&#8220;Perfect Pairings&#8221;<\/strong> recommendation with a reference to another recipe (mix-in, topping, other flavor) in the book. Genius! If it was a blog, it would be <strong>hyperlinked<\/strong>. I like how he knows that people reading his cookbook are going to take the basic recipe and run with it. Bravo!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I have actually tried a few recipes already from the book, but I wanted to include this for the <a href=\"http:\/\/eatdrinklive.typepad.com\/eat_drink_live\/2007\/06\/hay_hay_its_don.html\"><strong>Hay Hay Donna Day #13, Sorbet<\/strong><\/a>, hosted by <a href=\"http:\/\/eatdrinklive.typepad.com\/eat_drink_live\/\">Eat Drink Live<\/a>. <\/p>\n<h3>Watermelon Sorbetto<\/h3>\n<p><em>(adapted from David Lebovitz&#8217;s The Perfect Scoop)<\/em><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/msadventuresinitaly\/618459655\/\" title=\"Photo Sharing\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1115\/618459655_6950d964a5.jpg?resize=500%2C333\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"Watermelon\" \/><\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>I feel like I am making a lot of confessions lately! But <strong>I am not really a big watermelon fan<\/strong>. Watermelon is known by two names here in Italy &#8211; <strong>cocomero<\/strong> and <strong>anguria<\/strong>, and it really depends on who you&#8217;re talking to (though I used cocomero more in Tuscany and Rome). I didn&#8217;t plan this, but <a href=\"http:\/\/reallyrome.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/25\/er-cocomeraro-the-watermelon-man\/\">Shelley has a post up about cocomero today<\/a>, too! S is a big fan of <strong>anguria<\/strong>, and he&#8217;s the reason that we had a 6 kilo watermelon in our fridge over the weekend. No man can eat 6 kilos of watermelon alone (even if he wants to!) so I knew I had a good opportunity to try out <strong>The Perfect Scoop<\/strong>, even if I wasn&#8217;t sure I would be that excited about the results. <\/p>\n<p>Well, let me say that <strong>I kept &#8220;tasting&#8221; it over and over during the freezing process<\/strong>. I couldn&#8217;t get enough! I thought it was great, and I think I figured out my new favorite way to eat watermelon. Yum!<\/p>\n<p><em>A note for those of us without an ice cream maker:<\/em> Do NOT make this right before you want to eat it. It will take hours to set up. Your freezer will figure out you are stalking it and just like the watched pot, it too will refuse to freeze faster.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/msadventuresinitaly\/619086492\/\" title=\"Photo Sharing\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1414\/619086492_00915d08cd.jpg?resize=500%2C333\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"Watermelon Sorbetto - Granita\" \/><\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>4 1\/2 c. watermelon juice (it was only 1\/2 of our watermelon)<br \/>\n1\/2 c. sugar<br \/>\nBig pinch of salt<br \/>\n2 T. freshly squeezed lime juice<\/p>\n<p>Heat 1\/2c. watermelon juice with sugar and salt until fully dissolved. Mix in with remaining watermelon juice and mix well. Pour directly into freezer-safe pan (I used throwaway aluminum baking pans) or flat plastic container (may take longer) and freeze. After one hour, start scraping the sides and pushing the crystals to the middle of the pan. Continue this for several hours, if you have the patience! <\/p>\n<p>If the mixture gets too hard or solid, you can take it out of the freezer for 10 minutes until it starts to soften. I was so impatient, I started eating (and photographing it) while it was still freezing, and had more of a slushy granita consistency, but as it sets up, it becomes quite scoopable and sorbet-like. I wish I had had <strong>chocolate chips on hand like David&#8217;s recipe calls for<\/strong>, but I didn&#8217;t. In the end, I thought this was excellent on all its own. <\/p>\n<p>Now I know what to do when there are only large watermelons for sale! <strong>I will definitely be making this again.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Note 2: I used about 50% more watermelon juice than called for in the book. To have a denser sorbet from the beginning, use 3 c. watermelon juice and 1 T. lime juice with the same amount of sugar, as recommended by David in the Perfect Scoop<\/em><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/msadventuresinitaly\/618456057\/\" title=\"Photo Sharing\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1290\/618456057_12ce822454.jpg?resize=500%2C333\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"Watermelon Sorbetto - Granita\" \/><\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>Check out other bloggers&#8217; experiments with The Perfect Scoop through <a href=\"http:\/\/www.davidlebovitz.com\/\">David&#8217;s round-ups on his blog<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s officially summertime here, and with it comes the hot weather I have come to associate with Italian summers. When it&#8217;s this hot, I find it hard to eat a normal meal, and often at lunchtime I have a &#8220;meal replacement&#8221; in the form of a nice gelato or ghiacciolo (ice pop\/popsicle). The author of&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/25\/watermelon-sorbetto-granita-from-the-perfect-scoop\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,3,43,2,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-dessert","category-food","category-gelato","category-italy","category-recipe","entry","has-post-thumbnail"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4uB1-5N","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2971,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/03\/gelato-and-hot-chocolate-a-chocolat-double-header\/","url_meta":{"origin":359,"position":0},"title":"Gelato and Hot Chocolate: a Chocolat double-header","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"February 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I met with a longtime blog reader & fellow food blogger who was in town for business in Milan (I love it when that happens!) - she asked me to recommend some gelaterie but I did one better and joined her for a gelato close to where she was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Chocolate&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Chocolate","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/food\/chocolate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pistachio, cinnamon and hazelnute chocolate gelato at Chocolat, Milano","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/whatisee\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/IMG_3610-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":392,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2007\/09\/21\/my-favorite-sandwich-in-italy-gelato-in-a-brioche\/","url_meta":{"origin":359,"position":1},"title":"My Favorite Sandwich in Italy: Gelato in a Brioche","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"September 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I have to move on from all my posts about Puglia, even if I have another hundred or photos to share with you. We still have Sicily, Paris, Endinburgh and all the things I've been doing since I got back! I also got another surprise as I'm a joint winner\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Discovering Food&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Discovering Food","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/discovering-food\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Marrocchino - How to Order an Italian Coffee","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1225\/774208963_e070ab4614_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1800,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/20\/habanero-celery-valrhona-gelato-il-gelato-gelateria-and-100-flavors\/","url_meta":{"origin":359,"position":2},"title":"Habanero, Celery, Valrhona gelato &#8211; 100 savory &#038; sweet gelato flavors at Il Gelato gelateria","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"August 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Update: This location appears to have closed as of November 2012 - you can still visit his locations in Rome Another stop on the Tour del Gelato - discovering the world's best gelato one lick at at time! You can participate, too! This week I made a discovery about a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Food&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Food","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/food\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Chocolate and Raspberry (Cioccolato, lampone) gelato at Il Gelato gelateria, Milan, Italy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2589\/3839921582_eef6777947.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":369,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2007\/07\/20\/tour-del-gelato-il-massimo-del-gelato-milan\/","url_meta":{"origin":359,"position":3},"title":"Tour del Gelato: Il Massimo del Gelato, Milan","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"July 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Stop the presses. We've just found our new, absolute favorite gelateria in all of Italy. Yes we're ready to go that far to claim it as such. Before I go on, make sure you check out other stops on the Tour del Gelato - we've had several new ones in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog Event&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blog Event","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/blog-event\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"3 flavor coppetta at Il Massimo del Gelato","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1129\/857385914_8cfa2085ae.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":331,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2007\/05\/03\/tour-del-gelato-pinguino-blu-in-milan\/","url_meta":{"origin":359,"position":4},"title":"Tour del Gelato: Pinguino Blu in Milan","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"May 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Update: this store is now closed.\u00a0 Another stop on the Tour del Gelato and also another stop in Roccamonfina by Karen! Check out the Tour del Gelato blogroll to participate or see other stops! And in Gelato news, do you remember when I went to Grom in Florence? Now they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog Event&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blog Event","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/blog-event\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Gelato Case at Pinguino Blu","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/178\/482349300_b6143eaae7.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":647,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/19\/best-gelato-in-rome-san-crispino-gelaterias-new-location\/","url_meta":{"origin":359,"position":5},"title":"Best Gelato in Rome: San Crispino Gelateria&#8217;s New Location","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"September 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Gelato is definitely an \"O food\" (Check out our O Foods for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month contest) One of my favorite gelaterias in Rome is San Crispino. I've talked about it and heard about it so much from others it's a shock to me to realize that the Tour del\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog Event&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blog Event","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/blog-event\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Gelato Containers from San Crispino Gelateria, Rome","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3012\/2867210251_aeeeae4695.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}