This granita recipe is from a compilation called Gourmet’s Sweets published in 1998, and it is a perfect summertime recipe that combines some of my favorite things: grapefruit, Campari (I may or may not have too close of a relationship with Campari), and, well…sugar. It is sweet, but also bitter with an edge from the combination of grapefruit and Campari. As with all granita recipes, it is as simple as can be, but it has the power to transport you to another place entirely - perhaps a ristorante all'aperto in Rome after an indulgent plate of pasta.

The original recipe is made with limes and has a gingersnap crust. There seems to be many who claim ownership of it in an internet search, but my tattered copy was printed in 2000 and is credited to Addie’s, a restaurant in Rockville, Maryland.

It’s a cake that’s easy to eat - a light citrus taste accompanied by a faint background flavor of extra virgin olive oil. It has a lovely, moist crumb that is somewhere between a chiffon cake and a pound cake, and it isn’t cloyingly sweet.