Meaning & use
granita
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Meaning
nouncountable or uncountable
A semi-frozen Italian dessert of sweetened water, fruit juice or coffee that is scraped into coarse, icy crystals.
Grammar: Uncountable as a food (a spoonful of granita) and countable for servings (two granitas).
Patterns
- granita made from something
- a granita of something
We cooled down with a lemon granita after the long walk.
In Sicily, people sometimes eat coffee granita with a soft brioche for breakfast.
The chef scraped the frozen mixture with a fork to make the granita.
Word forms
| plural | granitas |
|---|
Common combinations
- lemon granita
- A lemon granita is sharp and refreshing.
- coffee granita
- We ordered coffee granita topped with cream.
- almond granita
- The cafe's almond granita is famous in town.
- serve a granita
- She served a watermelon granita at the end of the meal.
- granita with brioche
- Granita with brioche is a classic Sicilian breakfast.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sorbet
- Sorbet is smoother and churned to a fine texture, while granita is deliberately rough and flaky.
- Italian ice
- Italian ice is a similar treat common in the United States, usually sold as a smoother cup or cone.
- shaved ice
- Shaved ice is made from ice shaved before flavored syrup is added, whereas granita is frozen with its flavor already in it.
- slush
- Slush is a drink-like, often sweeter and more artificial icy mixture than a granita.
Word family
Commonly confused: granita or granite?
granita vs granite
Granite is a hard stone used on kitchen worktops, while granita is a frozen dessert; they share an Italian root meaning grainy.
Practice
The dessert was a rough, icy mix of sugar, water and lemon juice scraped with a fork. It was a ___.
Choose one answer.
Granita is the Italian frozen dessert. Granite is a rock, grenadine is a pomegranate syrup, and grain is a small particle or cereal seed.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “granita”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.