Panna cotta

Preparation

Sugar is dissolved in warm cream. The cream may be flavored, either by infusing spices and the like in it, or by adding rum, coffee, vanilla, and so on. Gelatin is softened in a cold liquid, then added to warm cream mixture. This is poured into molds and allowed to set. The molds may have caramel in the bottoms, giving a result similar to a crème caramel.

Although the name means 'cooked cream', the ingredients are only warmed enough to dissolve the gelatin and sugar.

Garnishes

Panna cotta is often served with a coulis of berries, or a sauce of caramel or chocolate. It may be covered with fruit or with liqueurs.

History

The name panna cotta is not mentioned in Italian cookbooks before the 1960s, yet it is often cited as a traditional dessert of the northern Italian region of Piedmont. One (undocumented) story says that it was invented by a Hungarian woman in the Langhe in the early 1900s. An 1879 dictionary mentions a dish called latte inglese 'English milk', made of cream cooked with gelatin and molded, though other sources say that latte inglese is made with egg yolks; perhaps the name covered any thickened custard-like preparation.

The Region of Piedmont includes panna cotta in its 2001 list of traditional food products of the region. Its recipe includes cream, milk, sugar, vanilla, gelatin, rum, and marsala poured into a mold with caramel. Another author considers the traditional flavoring to be peach eau-de-vie, and the traditional presentation not to have sauce or other garnishes.

Panna cotta became fashionable in the United States in the 1990s.

Related dishes

Bavarian cream is very similar to panna cotta, made of milk and cream thickened with gelatin or isinglass, though the flavorings and garnishes are generally different.

Blancmange is sometimes thickened with gelatin or isinglass, sometimes with starch.

Custard, on the other hand, is generally thickened with egg yolks, though in Britain, it may be thickened with cornflour; see custard powder.