With unknown origins, panna cotta goes by as an Italian dessert but the story says that the recipe came from Arab countries when Italy was under occupation. Another legend says that a Hungarian cook would have brought the recipe to Italy when she decided to emigrate, somewhere around 1900. More than 100 years later, no one cares about history as much as they care about the taste … which is awesome! It is a soft cream, sweetened with sugar and flavored with … anything you like – from spices to fruits and liqueurs – everything is an option.
If you ask me, panna cotta is the most simple dessert you can make. And the number of flavor mixes is … infinite. But you don’t have to combine them or stop here – chocolate, Baileys, coffee, vanilla, strawberries, rosemary, cinnamon, elderflower – any flavor you like can become a panna cotta.
If you choose to make fruit panna cotta, use a fruit puree – simply put them in a blender and then pass the paste through a strainer.
In the case of spices, use cream of at least 35% fat and cook for 15-20 minutes on low heat. If you want the aroma to be vanilla, you can directly add vanilla sugar or vanilla essence in the cream or you can add a chopped vanilla pod. Pass everything through a strainer and then you can use the recipe below. You can also add fresh or candied fruit to the dessert.
I chose to make a fresh one with some of my favorite fruits – mango / passion fruit
For the presentation you can choose jars, glasses and even silicone shapes in case you want to serve the dessert on a plate.
Ingredients
Instructions
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Put the gelatin to soak in the water until it soft.
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Make a puree from mangoes with a hand blender. Add the soaked gelatin and the passion fruit puree on top. Separately put the cream to boil.
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When the cream is almost boiling, pour it over the purees and mix continuously
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When the mix became thicker pour it in glasses. Leave it in the fridge to set for a few hours or overnight
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Take it out of the fridge 30 minutes before you intend to serve it. Having it too cold will make it harder to enjoy the taste. Put a layer of mango cubes and a tablespoon full of passion fruit on top and it is ready to be served.
