Panna Cotta all'Olio #QBCucina

I recently joined the Quanto Basta Italian Cookbook Club. and the first book I received was Via Carota by Jody Williams and Rita Sodi with Anna Kovel. I will write more definitive thoughts about this book after I try several more recipes. This was my offering for the fourth week's assignment - ROC (recipe of choice) from the Autumn section.

The first time I made it - following the proportions and directions to the letter - it was an epic fail. It had far too much olive oil. Each spoon was like having a mouthful of oil with a little bit of panna cotta, even though it didn't look like that. R and I tasted one ramekin and I dumped the rest of them. It fell into my "not worth the calories!" category.

So I used the recipe as inspiration, only, and made my own panna cotta. I have previously shared Dark Chocolate-Juniper Panna Cotta and Passionfruit Panna Cotta, This was a vanilla bean panna coota. Then I drizzled it with a little bit of olive oil and sprinkled it with sea salt. It was perfect, but diverged completely from the Via Carota version.

Panna Cotta makes five 3+ ounce servings

• 1 envelope gelatin

• 1/4 cup cold water

• 2 cup organic heavy cream

• 1 vanilla bean

For Serving

• olive oil

• flake sea salt

Procedure

Panna Cotta

Dissolve the gelatin in cold water in a medium mixing bowl. Pour the heavy cream into a medium saucepan. Slice the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Stir those and the bean into the cream. Heat, over a medium-low flame, until it begins to steam. Do not let it boil. Remove the bean pod and let cool for 5 minutes, then pour the warm cream into the gelatin and stir till completely dissolved.

Pour the mixture into your serving containers and let chill until set, but at least four hours. Serve cold.

For Serving

Remove the panna cotta from the fridge. It should be firm. Drizzle olive oil over the top of the panna cotta and sprinkle with sea salt. Serve immediately.