Italian Ice

 "Summertime, and the livin' is easy!" According to Porgy and Bess, summertime involves fish, cotton, and rich daddies.  Afterwards, everyone lives happily ever after. I'm pretty sure Porgy becomes a stockbroker and Bess is his desperate housewife, or something like that.
Wow. That got off track really fast.
What I meant to say is that summer is fast approaching!  Around our apartment, summer means Italian ice!  I try to keep one or two flavors of Italian ice in our freezer at all times throughout the season.  It's quick, refreshing, and not too heavy on the calories.
My Italian ice recipe is an adaptation of one I found on Epicurious.com.  I used plums, pluots, and raspberries; but most fruit are adaptable to the recipe.  I think stone fruit and berries make the best ices.  Be creative!
Ingredients
- approximately 2 cups of fruit (I used 1 plum, 2 pluots, and eyeballed the raspberries)
- a heaping 1/4 cup of sugar
- approximately 4 to 5 cups of crushed or small cubes of ice
* You can probably sense that this is a very forgiving recipe.  None of my numbers are set in stone.  Everything can be adapted to suit your tastes.
Tools You'll Need
- 1 glass dish (Mine is an 8x8 Pyrex casserole dish)
- A blender
- (optional) An immersion blender

'Do I... Do I dare to eat a...plum?'

1. Put the glass dish into the freezer for approximately 30 minutes.
2. Put the fruit in the blender and sprinkle the sugar on top.  Shake the sugar so that it gets into the nooks and crannies of the fruit. I use my immersion blender for this part, but I'm sure it's easier to put it directly into the regular blender.

"Pour some sugar on me!" Naughty little raspberries.

3. Purée the fruit and sugar.  Taste the purée.  Add sugar or fruit as you see fit, but remember that the ice will water down the taste slightly.

This looks like I'm preparing for a scene in Carrie.

4. Put the purée into the pitcher blender (if it isn't already there), and top with ice.  Pulse until most of the ice is incorporated into the purée.  Then run the blender until you get a smooth uniform color.  Be patient. This part takes a few minutes, but is worth the wait. You're looking for a smooth finish, no crunchy ice.

5. Pour the mixture into your chilled glass dish. Put the dish in the freezer for about 30 minutes to firm.

6. Bask in the joy of Italian ice.

Why matryoshka? Because Italian ice is now a Russian dessert?