Strawberry Panna Cotta is the perfect rich, creamy and delicious. no bake dessert. It looks phenomenal, but is actually an easy summer dessert to make with only 7 main ingredients and a 20 minute prep time!
It’s a great dessert to serve for a date night, but it’s also a lovely one to serve at a dinner party as it has such a beautiful and impressive display.
What is Panna Cotta?
Panna Cotta is a traditional Italian dessert that literally means, “cooked cream.” The basic makeup of panna cotta is cream, sugar and gelatin. It’s similar to flan in that it has a firm, custard-like texture, but flan is made with eggs and baked (while panna cotta is made with gelatin and chilled). Traditional custard, creme brulee and pudding are also thickened with egg yolks. So panna cotta is kind of in a dessert league all on its own.
How to make Panna Cotta:
This recipe has a creamy vanilla base and is topped with an elegant and refreshing strawberry sauce. The complete, printable recipe is at the bottom of this post.
You’ll begin by letting the gelatin “bloom” in a small amount of milk. This means that you’ll let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes. It will absorb the water and swell into a gel-like consistency.
While the gelatin is blooming, you’ll heat cream, sugar, salt and the seeds from a vanilla bean in a saucepan and let that mixture simmer for 5 minutes. Then you’ll pull it from the heat and let it sit for a few minutes. Next is whisking the milk/gelatin mixture into the vanilla cream mixture until smooth. You want the gelatin to dissolve.
Finally, you’ll strain the vanilla panna cotta through a mesh strainer, getting rid of anything that didn’t dissolve. Then you’ll divide the mixture between two glasses, cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours (or overnight).
The quick and easy to make strawberry sauce is made on the stove, and then you’ll let it cool before adding to your vanilla panna cotta.
What kitchen tools are needed for making Panna Cotta?
Other than a basic saucepan, you will need a mesh strainer and some sort of parfait glasses for the panna cotta. Stemless wine glasses work great too. I wouldn’t recommend using ramekins for this dessert. It’s so much more attractive displayed in a clear glass.
Recipe Tips
- The panna cotta may be made and refrigerated up to 48 hours in advance of serving. Make and store the strawberry sauce separately, and spoon it on top of the panna cotta when ready to serve.
- It’s easy to double or triple the recipe. Just double or triple the ingredients!
- Don’t add the gelatin mixture to the simmering cream on the stove. If it’s heated too much, it will lose its ability to thicken the panna cotta.
- The panna cotta really does take about 4 hours to firm-up, so don’t try to rush the process.
- Fresh strawberries will be more flavorful than frozen.
- Fresh mint leaves are a nice garnish!
- Feel free to turn this strawberry panna cotta into another fruit flavor. I recommend trying blueberries, raspberries, cherries or peaches.
- You can also make the the vanilla panna cotta all on its own and add a drizzle of caramel sauce on top.
- Panna cotta does not freeze well, so don’t try to freeze any leftovers.
What you will love about this recipe:
- It’s a simple dessert to make, but it looks very elegant!
- The taste of the vanilla panna cotta is melt in your mouth amazing.
- Strawberry panna cotta is the perfect summer dessert recipe.
Strawberry Panna Cotta
Ingredients
PANNA COTTA
- ¼ cup whole milk
- 2½ teaspoons unflavored gelatin
- 2 cups heavy cream
- ½ cup granulated white sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- ½ whole vanilla bean (seeds extracted), or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
STRAWBERRY SAUCE
- 1 cup strawberries (sliced and divided)
- 3 tablespoons granulated white sugar
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Instructions
PANNA COTTA
- Place the milk in a small bowl and sprinkle the gelatin evenly over the milk. Let soak for 5 minutes.
- In a small saucepan, combine the cream, sugar, vanilla seeds, the seeded vanilla bean pod, and bring to a low boil. Let simmer for 5 minutes.
- After the 5 minutes, remove the pan from heat and whisk in the milk/gelatin mixture until smooth.
- Strain the liquid through a mesh strainer. (You don't need a super fine strainer as you are not trying to strain out the vanilla beans. You're just trying to strain out any undissolved pieces of gelatin.)
- Pour into your individual glasses, cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
STRAWBERRY SAUCE
- Add ½ of the strawberries, sugar, lemon juice, and water to a small saucepan and bring to a slow boil. Let simmer for 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat and add in the remaining strawberries.
- Let cool completely then spoon over the panna cotta. Refrigerate again until ready to serve.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
this is nice, love the panna cotta here, nice touch with the strawberry sauce, even better that you’ve added some lemon juice to cut the sweetness, thank you!
This panna cotta looks perfect for Valentine’s day! And so easy to make 🙂