A cooked cream dream
Surely the most popular Italian dessert in Australia, Panna Cotta makes an appearance on the menu of every Italian restaurant I know. The luxurious creamy taste and smooth slippery texture make this Italian dessert a temptation too difficult to resist post pizza or pasta. Thankfully, you don’t need to go out to enjoy perfect Panna Cotta because it’s not at all hard to make at home!
Panna Cotta can be made by infusing the cream with a variety of flavours but I prefer to stick with vanilla and serve some berry compote or sauce on the side. One thing is certain though, nothing goes better with a Panna Cotta than rich Italian coffee.
Panna Cotta with fruit and syrup. Image by snowpea&bokchio, Flickr.
Panna Cotta Recipe
Ingredients – Serves 4
- 250ml full fat milk
- 250ml double cream
- 50g caster sugar (more if you like it sweeter)
- 2 gelatine leaves
- 1 vanilla pod – split, seeds scraped out
Method
Start by soaking gelatine leaves in a little cold water to soften them. In a saucepan, combine milk, cream, sugar, vanilla seeds and pod (separated) and bring to a simmer for around 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Remove gelatine leaves, squeeze off excess water and add to saucepan. Remove vanilla pod. Stir to dissolve gelatine. Dividen evenly into 4 ramekins and chill in fridge for at least 4 hours. To ‘turn out’ sit moulds in hot water for a minute or two then invert onto plate.
Serve with compote, real strawberries, passion fruit or whatever takes your fancy!
