Sorbetto al Fico (Italian Fig Sorbet) A fig is the sweetest fruit on an Italian hillside and almost the least sour, which sounds ideal for a sorbet and is exactly the difficulty. This version keeps the whole fruit, skins included, so the colour comes out deep garnet and the flavour tastes of honey, tea and green fig leaf, sharpened by lemon and finished with a thread of olive oil. It is served cold and slightly soft, in small scoops, at the end of a late summer meal. Yield: a

Sorbetto al Cedro (Italian Citron Sorbet) Cut a cedro open and there is almost nothing inside: a dry heart of segments, two tablespoons of juice, and a white wall of pith an inch thick. Every other citrus sorbet is built on juice. This one is built on the pith, blanched and blended into a pale, floral, faintly resinous sorbetto that scoops like silk. Yield: 8 servings, about 1 quart (950 ml). Prep: 1 hour. Chilling: overnight. Churn: 25 minutes. Hardening: 4 hours. Difficulty

Sorbetto al Pompelmo Rosa (Italian Pink Grapefruit Sorbet) Pink grapefruit is the one citrus that arrives at the sorbet machine carrying a problem, and the problem is not acidity. It is bitterness, and bitterness does not behave the way sharpness does. Handled badly the sorbet finishes hard and medicinal; handled properly it finishes long, faintly resinous and deeply refreshing, which is exactly why it belongs at the end of a heavy meal rather than at the beginning. Yield: 6