Week 103:
RECIPE OF THE WEEK FROM THE STAFF AT HIGHFIELD HALL & GARDENS, GAIL BLAKELY
I don’t usually offer recipes that suggest hard to find ingredients, but this one is just so good, I couldn’t resist. Lu Matrascia appeared on “Falmouth is Cooking” on FCTV last month, and she demonstrated how to make this dessert. Should you be interested, you can watch the show on YouTube.com, where I featured her cookbook, There Are Rules.
I ordered gelatin sheets on line—they are a European form of our Knox Gelatin Powder. Some panna cotta recipes call for using the powdered gelatin, and if you cannot locate any gelatin sheets, I would suggest using two to three packages of the powder, dissolved in a little milk.
Lu topped her “baked cream” desserts with crushed Amaretti cookies. I like them plain, or topped with a few fresh raspberries or strawberries. Be warned– these are quite addicting!
Panna Cotta
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- ¾ cup confectioners’ sugar
- 3 sheets gelatin, 9” by 3”
- 5 Amaretti cookies, crushed
Instructions
- Bring cream, milk, and sugar to a boil in a two-quart saucepan, stirring constantly. JUST BEFORE it boils, remove from heat and add the gelatin sheets, slowly stirring the hot liquid with the gelatin sheets as they melt.
- Stir for 5 minutes to be certain all the gelatin melts, then pour the mixture into a glass bowl to cool.
- Stir occasionally to prevent a film from forming on the top.
- When cool, pour into dessert cups and refrigerate overnight.
- Sprinkle crushed Amaretti on top and serve slightly chilled.