Lemon Panna Cotta
I decided to write about the Mextoberfest cake that I made, and realized that I had a few unpublished drafts hanging out on my dashboard. The dashboard says that the last time I edited this post was September 2009. Whoops! And this isn’t the only draft in my dashboard either.
Panna Cotta is one of my favorite desserts to make and eat. It is soft, creamy, a little sweet, and perfectly rich. It is like a pudding, but more decadent. We ate it at a restaurant once and it was garnished with a strawberry with some Vincotto drizzled on top. It was heavenly, so we bought some Vincotto while we were in New York (couldn’t find any here in Charleston) and then I recreated the dish.
I’ve also made panna cotta with honey poured into the ramekins before the panna cotta is poured in, so that the honey is on top once the panna cotta is inverted onto a plate. The dark speckles are the vanilla beans that sunk to the bottom of the ramekin. I like it just as much as the lemon panna cotta, except that it looks pretty ugly.
Lemon Panna Cotta
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
zest of 2 lemons
juice of 2 lemons
1 1/4 gelatin leaves
Preparation
Mix together zest and sugar with fingers until zest has been mixed in well with the sugar. Add the sugar and zest to a small saucepan with the heavy cream. Add the juice and bring to a simmer.
Meanwhile, soak the gelatin leaves in cold water for about 4 minutes. Strain the heavy cream mixture into another bowl. Squeeze out the excess water on the gelatin leaves, mix gelatin in with the cream mixture. Pour into ramekins and chill for the day.
To serve, use a sharp knife to cut around the edges of the ramekin. Then invert the ramekin onto a plate and wiggle a little bit until the panna cotta falls out onto the plate. Garnish with a strawberry, or whatever you think looks pretty.