Fruit sorbet, and especially strawberry sorbet, became a favorite dish after I added a new ice cream maker to the kitchen this summer.

The process of making sorbet is surprisingly quick and easy, and the homemade product is perfect for a simple dessert, as an afternoon snack, or even as breakfast.

Here's how to make a sorbet that epitomizes summer simplicity and strawberry goodness.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of whole strawberries, either fresh or frozen
• 1 to 2 tablespoons of fresh citrus juice (I've used both limes and lemons)
• 1/2 cup of sugar (less with very ripe strawberries)
  
• 2/3 cup of water
  

Directions:

Scoop strawberries into a blender. Add the sugar, citrus juice and water. Blend until the mixture is mostly smooth, but leave a few larger berry chunks if you prefer sorbet with a little texture.

The strawberry mixture could be set aside in the refrigerator, but there is no need for this. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and follow the machine's directions.

With a small gel canister machine, freezing takes about 20 minutes, if the canister is well chilled ahead of time.

Serve with chopped fresh strawberries. Enjoy.

Notes on the recipe:

When finished, this recipe makes a scant quart of sorbet, or maybe a little less, if you're counting a few taste tests along the way. In another system of measurement, the recipe produces enough for about four ice cream bowls.

The sorbet can be eaten immediately, and should be. The exception would be that on very hot days, the sorbet may come out of the ice cream maker still a bit sloppy. Placing the batch in the freezer for an hour will fix this. But don't wait any longer, as the sorbet may become hard to scoop.

Variation:

Remove a few of the strawberries and add half a banana instead.

To avoid the blending step, first soak the strawberries with the sugar, water and citrus juice. Then smash the berries with a fork. The result will be chunkier and less uniform.