Strawberry Panna Cotta with Pistachio

The combination of pistachio and strawberry in a dessert works so well. Enjoy them together in a pistachio tart, plus with vanilla and coconut pairings in this pistachio ice cream - with or without the wasabi!

However, when put together in this easy panna cotta recipe, it's bliss and quick to prepare. It's a great party dessert for entertaining a crowd or a dinner party. So, while it's chilling for 3 hours, you can get on with other things.

What is Panna Cotta?

Panna Cotta is a chilled Italian dessert, meaning literally a 'cooked cream'. The cream is heated and infused with vanilla or some kind of flavour and a little sugar.

Like a French bavarois (Bavarian Cream), it's set with the help of gelatine sheets and chilled. The difference with a bavarois, however, is that it uses more fruit purée.

It's again different to a strawberry mousse, which doesn't cook the cream - instead a mousse uses chilled whipped cream, egg whites and often gelatine.

How is Panna Cotta Different to Crème Brûlée?

Although both panna cotta and crème brûlée are chilled creamy desserts, they are both different in the way how the creams are set.

A panna cotta is set by mixing in gelatine to the warmed cream. Conversely, a crème brûlée's basic cream is set by making a custard using egg yolks then cooked in a low heated oven. Once chilled to set further, the crème brûlée is topped with sugar and scorched to create a crackling top. The panna cotta is topped with a fruit purée.

Panna Cotta Recipe Ingredients (with gelatin sheets)

A panna cotta cream requires just 4 ingredients. Normally made with cream, sugar, gelatin (or gelatine) sheets (@ 2g each) and vanilla, these are made lighter by replacing a little cream with whole milk.

Gelatin Sheets vs Powder and Agar-Agar

In this recipe, I use gelatin(e) sheets @2g each with a 200-225 bloom, which is the standard in our supermarkets. For 500ml/half litre (2 cups) of fluid, use 3 gelatine sheets (6g). If you can only find powder, it's the same ratio (according to packet instructions). For 6g of gelatin sheets, use 6g of powder. (See FAQ for more).

Although the ratio is the same for sheets and powder, their preparation method is slightly different.

• For gelatin sheets, soak in cold water for about 10 minutes, then squeeze out the excess water and stir into the hot cream.
• For gelatin powder, stir it into a small bowl of 3 tablespoons cold water and leave to gel for 2-3 minutes. Add this to the hot cream (not boiling).

You could use Agar-Agar, which is vegan as made into powder from red seaweed. The dosage is much less (2g for 500ml/half litre/2 cups). However, I find it gummier as a texture. Personally we much prefer the creamier yet set result using gelatine sheets. Incidentally, I found this interesting information on gelatine's history.

Best Pistachios to Use for Desserts

Use unsalted pistachios for baking. Ideally, find the best deal and quality but, if you can, go for European pistachios. The top, la crème de la crème, are either Sicilian Bronte pistachios, Iranian, Green or Turkish.

Although pistachio paste is easy to find on the internet and in specialist baking shops, making your own is so much better. Even in France, many brands use synthetic aromas and far too much sugar. So the result using homemade gives the dessert a more natural taste - and pops with flavour.

If you use bought pistachio paste, use no more than 1 tablespoon. With this homemade pistachio paste, I like to up the dose to 2 tablespoons.

How to Make a Panna Cotta with Pistachio

To make a pistachio panna cotta, heat the cream and milk with the sugar, pistachio paste and melt in the gelatine sheets (squeezed from the water).

Pour into glass dishes or yoghurt pots and leave to cool for about 15 minutes. Then chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

How to Make the Strawberry Panna Cotta Topping

Once the creams are just about set, prepare the strawberry coulis. It all depends on the types of strawberries used. If yours are naturally very sweet, then there's no need to add sugar. Otherwise, add a tablespoon for more acidic varieties and whizz them up in a blender.

I used the same blender I made the pistachio paste in, just to get all the flavours in there! Once mixed, taste and adjust the sugar if it needs more. Take out about 3 tablespoons of the coulis, heat it and add the squeezed gelatine sheet.

Top on the creams and chill for a further hour.

Mini Panna Cottas for a Crowd: Variations

Panna cottas are excellent for parties, served in small verrine or shot glasses. Here are some variations with different toppings, based on the recipe below:

• To make a raspberry coulis, simply weigh out the raspberries as strawberries and follow the recipe below.
• Pistachio panna cotta with a hint of cardamom and sour cherries. Just add one gelatin sheet to this cherry sauce.
• Pistachio panna cotta with mango - make mango sauce and add a gelatine sheet like in the coulis recipe below.
• White chocolate panna cottas with rose - top with the strawberry coulis below or a rhubarb compote.

How to Serve

Panna cottas go so well with pistachio macarons (recipe in my first book, Mad About Macarons),keeping the dessert a completely gluten free recipe.
Otherwise they're also delicious with many small French biscuits, such as tuile cookies or almond financier cakes.