Panna cotta

Panna cotta (Italian for "cooked cream") is an Italian dessert of sweetened cream thickened with gelatin and molded. The cream may be aromatized with coffee, vanilla, or other flavorings.

Panna cotta
Panna cotta with mint and apples
TypePudding
Place of originItaly
Region or statePiedmont
Main ingredientsCream, sugar, gelatin
Panna cotta with strawberry sauce

History

The name panna cotta is not mentioned in Italian cookbooks before the 1960s,[1][2] yet it is often cited as a traditional dessert of the northern Italian region of Piedmont. One unverified story says that it was invented by a Hungarian woman in the Langhe in the early 1900s.[3] An 1879 dictionary mentions a dish called latte inglese 'English milk', made of cream cooked with gelatin and molded,[4] though other sources say that latte inglese is made with egg yolks;[5] perhaps the name covered any thickened custard-like preparation.

The Region of Piedmont includes panna cotta in its 2001 list of traditional food products of the region.[6] Its recipe includes cream, milk, sugar, vanilla, gelatin, rum, and marsala poured into a mold with caramel.[7] Another author considers the traditional flavoring to be peach eau-de-vie, and the traditional presentation not to have sauce or other garnishes.[8]

Panna cotta became fashionable in the United States in the 1990s.[9][10]

Preparation

Sugar is dissolved in warm cream. The cream may be flavored, either by infusing spices and the like in it, or by adding rum, coffee, vanilla, and so on. Gelatin is softened in a cold liquid, then added to the warm cream mixture. This is poured into molds and allowed to set.[1] The molds may have caramel in the bottoms, giving a result similar to a crème caramel.[11]

Although the name means 'cooked cream', the ingredients are only warmed enough to dissolve the gelatin and sugar.[2] In Italian, gelatin is often called colla di pesce (literally, 'fish glue', i.e. isinglass); it is unclear whether true isinglass was ever used.

Garnishes

Panna cotta is often served with a coulis of berries, or a sauce of caramel or chocolate.[12] It may be covered with other fruits or liqueurs.[1]

Bavarian cream is similar to panna cotta, but usually includes eggs as well as gelatin, and is mixed with whipped cream before setting.

Blancmange is sometimes thickened with gelatin or isinglass, sometimes with starch.

Panna cotta is sometimes called a custard,[2] but true custard is thickened with egg yolks, not gelatin.

See also

References
  1. Luigi Carnacina, Luigi Veronelli, "Panna Cotta", La Cucina Rustica Regionale 1:156, 1977, based on La Buona Vera Cucina Italiana (not seen), 1966
  2. Camilla V. Saulsbury, Panna Cotta: Italy's Elegant Custard Made Easy, p. 14
  3. Davidson, Alan (2006). Jaine, Tom (ed.). The Oxford Companion to Food (second ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 574. ISBN 9780192806819.
  4. P. Fornari, Il nuovo Carena : la casa, o Vocabolario metodico domestico : compilato sui più recenti lavori di lingua parlata, con raffronti dei principali dialetti : ad uso delle scuole, 1879, p. 498
  5. Pietro Fanfani, Vocabolario della lingua italiana: per uso delle scuole, 2nda edizione, 1865, p. 848
  6. Riccardo Brocardo, "I prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali del Piemonte a quota 370", full text Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
  7. "Prodotto n. 69", Bollettino Ufficiale Regione Piemonte 33:23 (supplement) p. 532
  8. Anna Del Conte, Gastronomy of Italy (revised edition), 2013, ISBN 1862059586, s.v.
  9. Amanda Hesser, The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Classic Recipes for a New Century, p. 441: "1990's: ... Panna Cotta replaces crème brûlée, excising the egg yolks and using gelatin for a wobbly texture"
  10. Greg Atkinson, West Coast Cooking, 2006, ISBN 1570614725, s.v. 'panna cotta': "panna cotta took us by storm in the '90s"
  11. Accademia Italiana della Cucina, La Cucina: The Regional Cooking of Italy, ISBN 978-0-8478-3147-0, p. 832, 2009, translation of La Cucina del Bel Paese
  12. "Chocolate Panna cotta – food to love". foodtolove.
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