~Theme music playing~
Hi guys! I'm Laura Vitale
On this episode of Laura in the Kitchen I'm going to show you
how to make panna cotta
Panna cotta is a very classic Italian dessert and has been requested quite a bit lately
so I'm really exited to show you this recipe
Perfect for Valentine's Day
And we're going to make a lovely smooth strawberry sauce to pour over the top
It's just delicious
But for now let's go over the ingredients to get started
You're going to need some half and half, some heavy cream
Some sugar, tiny bit of lemon peel, water, unflavored gelatin, vanilla extract
And those are your ingredients for the "panna cotta" part
The strawberry sauce is going to come a little bit later on
Now I know I'm going to get a lot of questions if you can substitute the half and half with heavy cream
and truthfully you really can not
I have never made this recipe without half and half or heavy cream
because panna cotta is really a cooked cream and you need that richness
if you substitute milk it won't turn out
I mean you need the richness and the thickness of the heavy cream and half and half
So if you can't get those two ingredients then I'm really really sorry but it will not work with milk
And I don't want you to waste your time, so, a little heads up
So, this is going to be super easy
Now first thing we're going to work on is the gelatin and you need unflavored gelatin for this
You can not have flavored gelatin, needs to be unflavored because otherwise it will penetrate the flavor of your dish
You don't want to do that
But this is a crucial ingredient, if you don't have it, it won't set, so there you go
And I'm going to sprinkle this over some cold water
There we go
And I'm going to leave that aside literally for just a couple minutes until the gelatin softens
So, bye bye
Now in this little teeny tiny sauce pan I'm going to put in my heavy cream, my half and half
My sugar and the lemon peel, and this is just a rind of lemon, very small amount
Not a whole a lot at all but that's going to go right in
putting the heat up on medium
And what I'm going to do is cook this until the mixture of the cream and the heavy cream
The cream and the half and half
is right at simmering point
you don't want this to boil, you want it to be right at the simmering point
Our cream mixture is perfect, you can see it simmering right around the side
you guys can see these little teeny tiny bubbles
and now I'm just going to turn it off - very important
Now I'm going to add in my softened gelatin and it's really soft
it's got a really funky texture at this point but that's what's going to help it set
So, add that
and my vanilla extract off the heat
That's good
You can also use vanilla bean if you have it with scraping off the seeds first
I don't have one, they're really difficult to find in my supermarket
So I always use vanilla extract
So I'm just going to stir this around for about a minute
I know it sounds ridiculous but you want to just mix in that gelatin really really well
That looks perfect
Ok, now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to strain this through a fine sieve
Just because if there is any pieces of gelatin that haven't melted
or some of your cream has curdled
doesn't get into your final dish, right
So, now you're going to take a couple ramekins
and the amount of this makes enough for four people if you're using like six ounce ramekins
These are a bit bigger than that so I'll be able to get two to three using these big ramekins
But
It's going to be so good
There you go
Yeah - let's just fill them up, how about that
Now all we're going to do is to cover these tightly with some plastic wrap
Because these are going to go in the fridge over night
So important that these go into the fridge for eight hours at least to over night
because it needs a lot of time to set
So, if you're making these for Valentine's Day or any event
make sure you do it the day before
because they won't set in a couple of hours
But it's really great because you know having the kind of deserts that you can make way ahead of time
is pretty fantastic - one less thing to do the day of you know
These are just going to go in and I'll see you tomorrow morning
My panna cotta has been in the fridge over night and before we take that out
we're going to make the strawberry sauce
Now the ingredients for it are super super simple
all you're going to need are some frozen but thawed strawberries
A little bit of water
Some corn starch, little tiny bit of sugar and some lemon
Now I like to use the frozen strawberries with this because I think it makes a much
more jammy like sauce
but if you want fresh berries, if you have fresh berries, then use that
and you can also use this with raspberries if you don't have strawberries
But I like the strawberries so that's why I'm using that
So this is how easy this is, I'm going to take my berries, in the juice and everything
I'm going to put that right in the blender
Along with tiny bit of sugar or to taste, I mean it really depends on how sweet your berries are
A squeeze of lemon minus any of the pit
There we go
And then all I'm going to do is blend this up
and puree it
Which should only take less than a minute
That looks good
Now all I'm going to do is I'm going to strain this through a fine sieve right into my sauce pan
And because it's such a fine sieve it's going to take a few minutes to get through
but it's really really worth it because you just get a super smooth
Ah, look at that - it's going to be super smooth
and really delicious so just take the time get a wooden spoon to help you, or a spatula
and just do this until it's all through
There goes the last of my sauce
See all those seeds and stuff - you don't want that into your sauce
you want it to be completely smooth
and that is perfect
So all I'm going to do now is turn this to medium
and I'm going to bring this up to a simmer
but in the mean time what I'm going to do is I'm going to take my water and corn starch
and I'm going to make like a slurry
I'm going to mix these two together
so that way I'm not going to add the corn starch directly to my strawberry puree
otherwise it's going to clump up
So, that's smooth and perfect
Let that come up to a simmer and then we'll finish it
My puree is up to a simmer so now I'm going to add in my corn starch mixture
and all I'm going to do is continuously whisk this for a few minutes or until the puree thickens
When it just like thickened to the point where it's almost like a heavy cream consistency
we're going to put it in a bowl and let it cool
That looks perfect, nice and thick
I'm going to turn this off
I'm going to pour it in a bowl
See, it's got a really lovely and thick consistency
Now I'm going to let this cool completely
and as it cools it will thicken
so, let it cool - it's going to take about half a hour or so, or until whenever
however long it takes to cool is what I'm trying to say
without spilling this little pan
but anyway I'm going to set it aside, let it cool, clean up, and then we'll finish it
Now that our sauce is completely cooled it's time to serve
Now, I'm just going to serve one right now
and you're going to take your panna cotta out of the fridge that was in there over night
You're going to take a little pairing knife like this
and you're going to run this right around the edges of the ramekin
just like that
and then what you're going to do is put this in a little bit of hot water for ten seconds
One, two
Nine, ten
Perfect
So then you take your plate
You just flip it over like so
and give it a good tap
And then it should wiggle out and if you need help just use your knife
There we go
In there is your panna cotta
Now what I do - first of all I like this to be centered a bit more
so you move it like so
And then I instead of drizzling the sauce over the top I like to spoon it all around
but you can do this however your heart desires
Just like that
Then you take a strawberry because I like people to know the sauce is made from strawberries
Fan it
Put this at the edge of your plate or you can put it on top
And then just finish it with a sprig of mint
And that is panna cotta
It's simple, well, takes a bit of time but you're not really doing anything
it's in the fridge over night
And now it's time to dig in
I'm going to take a piece from the bottom so I don't disturb how beautiful it is
It's like
Melts in your mouth deliciousness
It's rich, it's creamy, it's slightly tarte from the sauce
It's a wonderful balance of richness
and a little brightness coming in there from the sauce
It's beautiful and everybody loves it
in any Italian household there's a recipe for it somewhere
So I hope you've enjoyed spending time with me
The recipe for it, you know where it is
www.laurainthekitchen.com
I'll see you next time, bye bye