by Lorena Zanette
As my first post, I chose a dessert that is incredibly beautiful, and best of all: easy-peasy!
When we think of pastry, immediately comes the goose bumps. We start thinking about all those amazing and extremely complicated candy being made, so many steps and so many dishes ... but not this one! Panna Cotta is fresh, has a beautiful color, a delicate texture and outside the patience (once again) to wait it freeze, it is very easy to do, even those who are not very used to cook can do it without stress.
I used a recipe that was posted on Technicolor Kitchen, but with some small changes. In the original recipe, they made the panna cotta with a baked strawberry syrup, I had no strawberries but I had acerola fruits, blueberries and blackberries just sitting in my freezer, so why not use them instead?!
Lemon Panna Cotta
from the magazines Good Food and Donna Hay:
2 1/2 sheets of colorless and tasteless gelatin
600ml heavy cream
150 ml of whole milk
200g of sugar
grated zest and juice of 2 lemons
zest of 1 lime
Place the gelatine leaves in a bowl with cold water.
Meanwhile, combine the cream, milk and sugar in a large saucepan over medium heat until it begins to boil. Add the lemon and lime's juice and zest, mix well with a wire whisk. Boil over low heat for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, then remove from heat.
Remove the gelatin from the cold water and squeeze to remove excess water. Add it to the hot mixture and stir to dissolve it.
Let it cool, sieve it directly into a measuring jar (it makes a lot easier to distribute in the serving cups, but I confess that I didn't use a measuring jar and just tried my best to let them even) and then divide the mixture between 8 pots of 120ml each. Refrigerate for at least 5 hours or, if possible, from one day to the next.
Baked fruit syrup
1 box of blueberries
1 box of blackberries
12 large acerolas
2/3 cup sugar
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Put the fruits and sugar in an ovenproof dish with high edges, since the fruits' juice of the fruit goes well bubble. Mix and bake for 10-15 minutes or until softened and drop liquid (As used frozen fruit took 30 minutes until they soften and form a syrup). Remove from the oven and let cool.
Before serving, cover the Panna Cottas with the syrup.To give up the visual put a little leaf of basil, it looks great, but can in mint too.
Makes: 8 servings
