How to Make (Fantastic) Panna Cotta
A full guide on of the most delicious, simplest Italian dessert.
This is - insulting as it might sound to the motherland - one dessert that has a much better chance of coming out great if you’re NOT in Italy.
As I’m currently writing from Ireland, and after spending weeks in France, I am reminded of just how inferior the quality of commercial Italian milk can be.
The ladies I’m with, all well-traveled residents of Italy, agree. This, I believe, is one of the resons why homemade pannacotta is way better than most of those you find in restaurants.
It is, however, just one of the reasons.
While a simple dessert, made of potentially just 4 ingredients or even less, it requires some attention for every single one of the ingredients used. Below, I broke down every single step required to perfect this dessert that, with a little care, can be whipped up in 10 minutes of active work and make you feel like you came out of a vintage pizzeria with ugly plastic chairs in the middle of the Italian summer somewhere in the countryside (or at least that’s what I associate panna cotta with).
This is possibly my favorite dessert, and the one non-vegetarian recipe I decided to share in here regardless. In fact, the gelatin used to make panna cotta, also called colla di pesce in Italian, is of animal origin - more on this in the Gelatin paragraph below.
Here are all the little things you should consider before trying this iconic dessert:
A NOTE ON CREAM
There are three main credos when it comes to panna cotta:
1) Making it with half cream and half milk, for those who like the illusion of a lighter dessert;
2) Making it with a ratio of about 70% cream and 30% milk, which yields the a good result if you prefer a lighter texture;
3) Making it with 100% cream.
Italy only sells one kind of cream for making desserts: whipping cream, which has a 30% fat content. Heavy cream would work well with this recipe as well, but I suggest you do not go below 30% fat. Do have a read here to learn more about the various fat percentages in dairy.
If you have access to great quality full fat milk and cream, like that of Ireland, or Brittany, or the UK, I think the 50/50 split could work well, but I would still make it .
100% cream can create too much of a ‘fatty’, tongue-coating feeling in the mouth, especially if you decide to make it firm by using a higher amount of gelatin.
Always prefer organic, local milk. If you are in Italy, you will often find local, good quality milk at any Farmer’s market (usually at a Coldiretti one, the guys with the yellow tents).
A NOTE ON GELATIN
In my book Naturally Vegetarian I share a recipe for panna cotta made using agar-agar. While I am very happy I could provide a version of it with no animal products, I’ll go ahead and admit that I truly do not enjoy the agar version. Perfect panna cotta creaminess and texture is only achieved through gelatin. Colla di pesce, which literally translates to fish glue in English, probably gets the name because it is sold in transparent, plastic-like sheets with a scale-like texture on top. It needs to be rehydrated in cold water and dissolves instantly in hot liquids. It is made with the collagen extracted from pork bones, making it not suitable for vegetarians.
If you want to try this recipe using agar-agar, this article has a good explanation on how to substitute it. Please remember that any kind of powdered gelatin, including agar, needs to be dissolved in hot liquid before being added to the main recipe.
The amount of gelatin you add will make or break you panna cotta, making it the only challenging part of making this super simple dessert.
People might like their panna cotta stiffer or more jiggly. I prefer to put mine in glasses or cups as I prefer a softer panna cotta, but you will have to make it a bit stiffer if you want to make it into molds to be reversed on plates.
Packets of colla di pesce are usually sold in 16g packets, each sheet weighing 2g. Here’s a little guide for a 750ml (3 cups) liquid:
6g gelatin: makes for a rather loose panna cotta. My favorite.
8-10g gelatin: not too stiff, but firmer, enough to be reversed on a plate. This is probably the ideal amount.
12-14g gelatin: rather stiff. I would only use this much if you are planning to put the panna gotta in a big mold to reverse onto a serving plate, rather than making it in single servings.
Powdered gelatin will work too, but I strongly recommend using sheet gelatin as the setting power will be different. As I never made it with powdered gelatin before, I am going to skip an explanation on this and write about it again when I will have tested it.
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