More plums: Santa Rosa plum granita

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There are few things better than Santa Rosa plums, especially now when the fruit is ripe and shot through with sugars. So I ran over to the Santa Monica farmers market yesterday, just long enough to get some -- and catch a fleeting glimpse of new Bastide chefs Walter and Marge Manske shopping at the Windrose Farms stall as I hurried out. But speed has its price -- as does carrying a stack of books everywhere you go -- and to my enormous dismay I found when I arrived at the Times Test Kitchen that my glorious plums were bruised and battered. So I did what any self-respecting and slightly accident-prone cook would do -- I improvised. I mashed my plums even further and made a pretty awesome granita.

Here’s the recipe: Put three-quarters of a cup of water, half a cup of sugar, the juice of half a lemon, two tablespoons white verjus (you can substitute white wine if you don’t have this) and half a vanilla bean (split and scraped) into a small heavy saucepan. Bring to a simmer and reduce, about three minutes, until you have about half a cup of syrup. Skin and remove the pits from about five Santa Rosa plums and break up the fruit with a fork; you’ll need about one cup of mashed fruit. Cool the syrup slightly, then add the plum mixture. Stir and strain through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing the solids through with a spoon. Put the mixture into a glass dish and freeze overnight. Stir a few times to break apart the ice crystals as the granita is freezing and then again right before you’re ready to serve it.

I’ll never cry over battered fruit again.

-- Amy Scattergood