By Grocery List Plus Editorial Staff | Published on June 14, 2026
Serves 6
29 cal · 255 min
Strawberry Granita
Recipe GLPR33d68416c9205c
A classic Italian frozen dessert with a smooth, icy texture made from fresh strawberries, sugar, and water. The berries are macerated to release their natural juices, then blended and frozen with periodic scraping to create an elegant treat that captures the pure essence of summer strawberries.
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Ingredients
1 pound Fresh strawberries, rinsed and hulled
3 tablespoons Sugar
½ cup Water
Fresh lemon juice (optional)
Directions
Slice the cleaned strawberries into bite-sized pieces. Transfer them to a bowl and toss with the sugar. Let the mixture stand at room temperature for at least 1 hour, or up to 4 hours, allowing the strawberries to release their juices and become very juicy and vibrant in color.
Place a shallow, non-reactive metal or glass tray (such as a lasagna pan) in the freezer to chill.
Once the strawberries have macerated and released their juices, transfer the berries and all their liquid to a blender. Add the water and blend until completely smooth. Taste the mixture, and add a small squeeze of fresh lemon juice if desired. For a smoother texture, strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve to remove seeds, if preferred.
Pour the strawberry mixture into the chilled shallow pan and place it in the freezer. After 30 minutes, check the mixture. Using a fork, scrape the frozen portions that have formed around the edges toward the center, breaking up any ice crystals. Return the pan to the freezer.
Continue checking the granita every 30 minutes, scraping with a fork to break up the frozen crystals and pull the edges toward the center. As the mixture freezes more completely, scrape with more vigor. The entire freezing process should take approximately 2 hours total, until the granita has a uniform, fine, icy texture throughout.
Comments
Strawberry granita is dead simple to source at any Charlotte chain—strawberries and sugar are staples, lemon juice takes thirty seconds from a bottle or fresh lemon, and water is free—so ingredient cost runs around $8 to $10 total, or $1.35 to $1.70 per serving. The stated 255 minutes is honest; this is a freeze-and-scrape dessert that genuinely demands four-plus hours of hands-off time, not a trick. It's a perfect fit for a hot North Carolina summer, especially when local strawberries are in season spring through early summer, and it reheats perfectly by sitting out ten minutes or running a fork through the frozen block. The only small drawback is that it's a same-day dessert—you cannot make it the night before and serve it tomorrow, because it will solidify into a brick—so it demands plan-ahead timing on a weeknight.
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