Recipes

[DiamondGirly]

Our friend made a very nice gourmet dinner for us the other night. He is retired, but for many years he was a chef in very high end restaurants.

He made this dessert, because he tries to cater to my husband's Italian culture when he cooks. He's so sweet about it!

This is a custard-type dessert - but it contains NO EGGS! It's light and nice, but I do realize the heavy cream can't be healthy! We all need calcium, though, right? All in moderation, I say.

Our friend served this with a raspberry sauce, cooking down some raspberries and then straining to remove the seeds... and he added few raspberries on top - along with some cookies on the side of the dish. It was just beautiful!

He shared that he got this recipe from allrecipes.com - and he had me find it online and print it out. Here it is:

Panna Cotta by allrecipes

"A traditional, easy, and delicious Italian custard. I had a difficult time finding a good and easy recipe on the internet, so I made up my own recipe. It tastes just like the panna cotta served at Italian restaurants. Serve with warm hot fudge sauce and fresh raspberries on top. This keeps well for several days in the refrigerator."

Ingredients:

1/3 cup skim milk

1 (.25 ounce) envelope unflavored gelatin

2 1/2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Pour milk into a small bowl, and stir in the gelatin powder. Set aside.

2. In a saucepan, stir together the heavy cream and sugar, and set over medium heat. Bring to a full boil, watching carefully, as the cream will quickly rise to the top of the pan. Pour the gelatin and milk into the cream, stirring until completely dissolved. Cook for one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, stir in the vanilla and pour into six individual ramekin dishes.

3. Cool the ramekins uncovered at room temperature. When cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight before serving.