Take melons to the next level: Make a granita

That aroma is unmistakable. You’re walking through the outdoor markets — or even the frigid produce section at supermarkets — and you smell that swirl of floral, sweet melon. No matter the type, it hits your nose and that’s all you want.

Often, melon can bring up negative connotations of bad, sad fruit salads and edible arrangements. But in late summer, when it’s at its peak, it’s the only fruit I want to eat. Yes, watermelon counts and is delicious, but I’m talking about cantaloupes, honeydews and, my favorite, the Charentais — melons with a dense, buttery flesh and an odor reminiscent of a papaya with a spritz of Jo Malone London’s red roses cologne.

Weiser Farms’ melons are the ones I seek out when I’m at the Santa Monica or Hollywood farmers markets (you can sometimes even find them at Cookbook, the specialty food store with locations in Echo Park and Highland Park), but honestly, all melons are good this time of year. And when they’re this good, you only want to eat them raw, chilled from the fridge for an icy, refreshing snack or at room temperature, swaddled in paper-thin slices of prosciutto or speck.

But I see your unadulterated melon and raise you this: a snowy landscape of melon granita — lightly sweetened, spiked with a splash of lime juice and scented with rosewater — toppling over large, spoonmade chunks of more melon, all sprinkled with toasted pistachios and decorated with edible flowers.

The rosewater highlights the melon’s floral quality while the pistachios further plant it in the Middle Eastern dessert canon. Edible flowers gild the lily.

You might think, “This is a bit much,” but this time every summer, that aroma takes over and you must succumb to the fantastical mood it brings with it.