Growing up one of my favorite summer delights was Italian ice. It was a sweet, tart, cold and refreshing treat! Every week my Mom would buy some from the grocery store and the same night my siblings and I would each get one to enjoy!
Our neighbors recently went on vacation and before they left they dropped off some food. Inside was a bag of lemons that were starting to go bad. I immediately had a craving for my childhood memory of lemon Italian ice.
My blonde sweet girl and I got to work in the kitchen as we created this amazing, tastes just like childhood, lemon Italian ice! My kids can’t get enough and have been asking everyday for a little bowl of this summer in a cup!
Lemon Italian Ice
Ingredients
- 1¾ cups granulated sugar
- 4 cups water
- 14 large lemons-it makes about 1¾ cups
- a handful basil leaves -optional
Instructions
- Put water and sugar in a pot on the stove and place on low heat, allow to come to a soft boil to make a simple syrup.
- While the water and sugar are doing their thing-
- Zest three lemons and set aside the zest.
- Cut lemons in half and squeeze into a bowl. If you have a juicer it will come in handy! If not, you can take a strainer and place it in a bowl. Squeeze lemons over strainer so that the juice goes through to the bowl and the pits stay behind!
- Spoon out the pulp of 3 lemons and add to juice.
- Add zest.
- Remove the simple syrup off the stove and stir in lemon juice.
- Place juice mixture in a freezer safe container and then into the freezer!
- After 2 hours, using a fork, mix up what is now like slush.
- You can do 2 things: either leave it in the freezer until it maintains your desired Italian ice consistency, or after 2 hours you can transfer the slush to your ice cream maker and follow the instructions for ices/sorbet.
- I made mine at night, so I left it in the freezer over night and woke up the next morning to the perfect lemon Italian ice! I add basil from my garden as a garnish, I love the combination together!
- Enjoy 🙂
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