Mint and Lime Panna Cotta with Balsamic Berries
Panna Cotta is an Italian milk pudding, made of milk, cream or a combination of both, with gelatin as the solidifying agent. No eggs are used, differentiating it from custards and creme brulee. A well-made panna cotta is a silky smooth, quivering mound of creamy beauty. It’s delicious plain, or flavored with vanilla. I came up with this zesty, minty version as a post-dinner palate cleanser, and since I love fruit with mint, added the berries.
I haven’t perfected the art of de-containerizing the panna cotta without any damage to it — despite oiling my ramekins with flavorless, scentless grapeseed oil. Now, if you find some trick to this, you’ll have to let me know!
- cream, 3 cups
- milk, 1 cup
- lime zest, of 1 lime
- handful of mint
- sugar, 3 tbsp
- water, 3 tbsp, cold
- gelatine, 2 packets
- In a clean and scentless pan, simmer the cream/milk with sugar, zest and mint, to bring out the flavors
- In a separate bowl with the cold water, sprinkle 2 packets of gelatin and whisk. It becomes a gelatinous mass. Don’t worry about it.
- Pour the warm and flavored cream, through a sieve, onto the gelatin — a little first and keep whisking to ensure there are no lumps
- Pour the rest of the cream in and divide it amongst well-oiled ramekins
- Allow to cool and refrigerate.
For the berries
- bowlful of blueberries and blackberries (for color cohesion)
- sugar, 2–3 tbsp
- lemon juice, 1 tbsp
- creme de cassis, a few splashes
- balsamic vinegar, 3 tbsp
- Bring all the above to a simmer until the berries start to soften while still mostly holding shape. Mash with a fork any of them that have already broken
- Pour the berry concoction over the already-cooled, upended-on-a-plate panna cotta
- Attack with gusto
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