Panna Cotta with Balsamic Strawberries | Ina Garten

Kick off the summer season with panna cotta with balsamic strawberries. This is a recipe you can find on Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa website. A cold dessert with the sweet seasonal strawberries sounds so right for the summer of 2021. Notably, there is lightness and jubilance in the air. We’re all feeling the liberation from a long hibernation of the last 15 months. Normalcy has never felt so great!

This is an easy recipe starting with making the panna cotta. The ingredients include: gelatin, heavy cream (or half and half), yogurt, vanilla bean or extract and sugar. Cool that these are pantry items I always have around.

Prepare the hot-cream mixture by heating sugar and gelatin mixture with half of the cream in a small pan. The other half goes into the cold-cream yogurt mixture. Then stir to combine the two. Once the panna cotta mixture is cold enough, pour it into individual 6- to 8-ounce ramekins. Allow them to set in the refrigerator for a few hours. Serving the panna cotta involves inverting the ramekins. A short cut and a foolproof approach would be to put the panna cotta in glasses ready for the table. Can’t stress enough how easy it is to make this creamy and light dessert.

Thirty minutes prior to serving, macerate the balsamic strawberries with balsamic vinegar and sugar to release the juices. After that, it won’t be long before we can enjoy spoonfuls of this easy breezy summer dessert.

Print Recipe

Panna Cotta with Balsamic Strawberries

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons (7g/ 1 packet) unflavored gelatin powder
• 743 ml/ 3 cups heavy cream
• 660 ml/ 2 cups plain whole-milk yogurt
• 1-1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 vanilla bean
• 150g/ 3/4 cup sugar
• 4 pints (8 cups) sliced fresh strawberries
• 5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• Freshly grated lemon zest, for serving

Instructions

1

MAKE THE PANNA COTTA: In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin on 3 tablespoons of cold water. Stir and set aside for 10 minutes to allow the gelatin to dissolve.

2

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together 1½ cups of the cream, the yogurt, and vanilla extract. Split the vanilla bean and use the tip of a knife to scrape the seeds into the cream. Heat the remaining 1½ cups of cream and the sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Off the heat, add the softened gelatin to the hot cream and stir to dissolve. Pour the hot cream-gelatin mixture into the cold cream-yogurt mixture and stir to combine. Pour the into 8 (6- to 8-ounce) ramekins or custard cups and refrigerate uncovered until cold. When the panna cottas are thoroughly chilled, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

3

MAKE THE BALSAMIC STRAWBERRIES: Thirty minutes to an hour before serving, combine the strawberries, balsamic vinegar, sugar, and pepper. Set aside at room temperature.

4

To serve, run a small knife around each dessert and dip the bottom of each ramekin in a bowl of hot tap water for about 1 minute. Invert each ramekin onto a dessert plate and surround the panna cotta with strawberries. Dust lightly with freshly grated lemon zest and serve.

Notes

https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/panna-cotta-with-balsamic-strawberries