Sicilian Granita

Granita is water, sugar and flavouring frozen while being stirred, which keeps the crystals fine and gives a texture that is neither ice cream nor a drink. In eastern Sicily it is breakfast: a glass of granita with a brioche col tuppo, the soft bun with a topknot, which you tear and dip into it. Almond is the base flavour and the good version is made from crushed almonds rather than syrup. Lemon, coffee, pistachio and black mulberry are the others worth ordering. Palermo makes a coarser version, and the towns around Messina and Catania will tell you at length that theirs is the original.

Highlights

• Almond granita - made from crushed almonds, not from flavouring.
• Brioche col tuppo - the topknot bun, torn and dipped.
• Black mulberry - gelsi, in season for a few weeks in early summer.
• Coffee with cream - the standard mid-morning order in Catania.

When to go

Roughly April to October; many bars stop making it over the winter. Breakfast, between seven and ten, is when it is meant to be eaten and when it is freshest. Mulberry appears for a short window in early summer. Look for a bar with a metal churn behind the counter rather than a slush machine in the window.

Before you go

A lot of what is sold as granita is machine slush made from syrup and is a different thing entirely; the real version separates if it stands. Portions are large for a breakfast. Prices on the main squares are roughly double those a street back. Almond granita is very sweet and not to everyone's taste.

Nearby

Etna stands inland from Catania; the Ionian coast runs north towards Taormina.