A few months back we went to this great restaurant, Mind, Body, Spirits, and we had the most delicious burger with roasted rosemary tomatoes and at the time they had a Cold Noodle Salad that was so much tastier than it sounds. Even after all of that great food, we knew we had to split dessert because this place makes their own homemade ice cream! Our waitress said the special dessert of the day was Panna Cotta and Marc looked at me with a puzzled look. I knew what it was, but had never tried it.  I thought to myself, isn’t it just glorified jello, really? Oh no, folks, this is good stuff. It was served with homemade Raspberry Ice Cream, so good! Marc really loved it, too.

As soon as we left the restaurant, the search was on for a worthy Panna Cotta recipe.  I found several, but my enthusiasm fizzled as the days passed. One day I was clicking around on David Lebovitz’s site and he had a simple and delicious sounding recipe. This was it, time to make the Panna Cotta! It’s summer and it’s a dessert that I barely have to heat, perfect! So I warmed the heavy cream with sugar, added the vanilla, poured the gloriousness onto water and gelatin and poured the dessert into my little white coffee cups that I never use (thanks David for the great idea). Well, now I do, they are my Panna Cotta cups, right? Now for the awful part, you have to wait 2 hours for these to firm up, BUT it is so easy that you can make these while you are preparing dinner and then it won’t be long after dinner before they are ready to be served up! I topped the Panna Cotta with strawberries and blueberries sprinkled with a bit of vanilla and a slight sprinkle of brown sugar so that a syrupy juice accumulated. Mmmmm….it was worth the wait. I now cannot get enough of the stuff. I tried the next batch with half and half, trying to get the flavor without as many calories and sadly friends, it’s just not the same. Going back to full cream next time.

Panna Cotta

From David Lebovitz, makes eight servings

4 C. heavy cream

1/2 C. sugar

2 t. vanilla extract, or 1 vanilla bean split lengthwise

2 packets powdered gelatin (about 4 1/2 t.)

6 T. cold water

1. Heat the heavy cream and sugar in a saucepan. Once the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract. (If using the vanilla bean, scrape seeds from the bean into the cream and add the beanpod. Cover and infuse for 30 minutes. Remove the bean and rewarm before continuing).

2. Lightly oil 8 custard cups with neutral-tasting oil.

3. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water in a medium-sized bowl and let stand 5-10 minutes.

4. Pour the very warm cream mixture over the gelatin and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved.

5. Divide the Panna Cotta mixture into the prepared cups, then chill until firm. This will take at least 2 hours.

6. Unmold using a sharp knife onto a plate or serve in cute coffee cups or wine glasses.

This recipe is great, but it is just itching to be jazzed up. I’d really like to try this with coconut milk or try infusing mint in the cream.