Anne Myers

My time for blogging is not as much as I would like it to be, but here is a short – but sweet – one: Classic Panna Cotta. It is precisely my kind of food – as I try to have all things in my life – as it is simple, uncomplicated and unpretentious.

Betty Bake’s ten things that every blogger should know inspired me so much that I made time this weekend to write what I should have done ages ago: my Ten-point Pledge and commitment to food blogging. You can click on the link or on the tab My Ten-point Pledge above. If you agree and strive to the same values, you are welcome to cut and paste it and make it your own without any credit to me. It is very easy to add a page to your blog. Just go to your dashboard, go to ‘Pages’ on the left and on its drop down arrow, you will see “Add New”. Click on it and a blank post form will open. Write on it just as if it were a post and when you hit the “Publish” tab, it will appear on your blog as a separate page on the menu bar on top. That is how you can tell us about yourself, share your favourite lists, favourite restaurants, ingredients, menus or images or whatever takes your fancy. The nice thing is it does not go away like a post eventually slips into the background. These extra pages stay there until you delete them. But without any further ado, here is my favourite, plain old basic classic Panna Cotta recipe. It is not unique or new and the originator of the panna cotta recipe is not known for sure. But I love the simpleness of this one and I am sure you would too. Enjoy!      

Classic Panna Cotta

The nice thing about Panna Cotta is that you can make them a day in advance. Just keep them covered and chilled in the cups and invert only before serving. The terms ‘half-and-half refers to half milk, half cream. We use far too little of it in our country but then, we have fat-reduced cream.

• 2 x 10 g sachets of powdered gelatine
• 90 ml cold water
• 1 litre cream (or half-and-half)
• 125 ml castor sugar
• 5 ml vanilla extract (or the seeds of a vanilla bean)

Sprinkle the gelatine over the cold water and set aside to sponge. 

Heat the cream and add the sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract or seeds. Add the sponged gelatine to the hot mixture and stir until the gelatine is dissolved. 

Spray eight small moulds with plain non-stick spray and then spoon a portion of the panna cotta mixture into each mould. Place in the fridge for at least two hours or until firm. 

To serve, invert onto a serving plate, and garnish with whole fresh fruit or berries and its purée or sauce.

Serves 8 small portions (125 ml each)

Chef’s hint: I usually remove about 5 ml of gelatine from the quantity given becuase I like a soft texture which I then pour in pretty glasses and chill. These I serve directly from the glasses (with a fruity garnish on top) when set. It saves time and gives a different mood to an old classic.