Cooking School and Chef in Tuscany: Panna Cotta!

Ours Cooking School in Tuscany often runs cooking classes and prepare private dinners for restaurateurs, hoteliers, people who deal with food.

They contact us through our CONTACT FORM and explain us their wishes: they like improving their techniques or skills in Italian cooking, first of all in Italian successfull desserts.

Vanilla Panna Cotta with diced strawberries

Our cooking school is popular in desserts:

first of all we pay the utmost attention to the original recipe and story of a dish
in addition to this you know that stories about cakes and desserts are always fascinating

In Italy we call “dolci al cucchiaio” those ones that you eat with a spoon: “literally spoon desserts”.

Since “dolci al cucchiaio” are definitely my favorite, I love to post many recipes and try them in different ways. In fact my first goal here in this blog is passing down to you the recipes, tips and tricks about what I think are the best ones.

Panna Cotta (literally: “cooked cream”) is a fantastic and easy dessert, but there are lots of mistakes in the Italian recipes from the Web.

In this case, for example, they add everywhere some milk to the fresh cream. In some absurd case, they even add skimmed milk.

Nooooo, don’t do that. The original recipe doesn’t call for milk. The fresh cream is the key, following the name: Panna Cotta. The flavor is completely different if you use milk instead of cream. So…many mistakes on the web for Italian recipes.

Well, it’s exactly what we try to avoid in our Cooking School in Tuscany.

: Panna cotta with blueberries

: Tapioca panna cotta (vegan)

Well, you have 2 options for learning to make amazing Italian desserts:

Above all you can come here to Tuscany on holiday: contact our cooking school and we’ll come directly to your home to run a Private Cooking Class. You know that Tuscany is wonderful, furthermore, a cooking class is the best souvenir that you’re bringing home. Maybe it’s not so easy…I know. Anyway, you can always have a look
here on this blog. In fact, I’m writing many recipes trying to be clear and exhaustive. Because of my 8 years of experience as cooking classes instructor, I know the critical steps of a recipe very well. That’s why I can help you directly at your home, from this blog as well.

Panna Cotta with fresh apricots sauce

So, apart from Panna Cotta (you can find the recipe below), here are some desserts that we often prepare at our cooking school, click the link if you’re interested in:

Zuppa Inglese

Mascarpone cream and Amaretti crumbles

The Real Tiramisu

Sicilian Cassata

Yogurt and Berries

No eggs Bavarese, Yogurt, Vanilla, and wild berries sauce

Our Tuscan/Italian recipes are all tested by me and our customers.

Well, telling you the truth many of my recipes have been tasted from my Granny who passed down to me all her skills and “secrets” in cooking. Don’t forget to read the session about her trick and tips by clicking RIGHT HERE.

panna cotta and strawberries sauce

Panna Cotta is one of the most important and traditional Italian desserts.

In my opinion, it’s the perfect dessert for friends and guests that you can prepare:

It’s very versatile because you can season it with a big amount of sauces. As you can see from the pictures: Strawberries sauce, Caramel, Chocolate, Fresh fruit, any kind of fruit puree…
It’s very simple and fast
You always make a good impression with friends and guests

At our Cooking School, students love first of all the time to enjoy the fruit of the labor.

How can I blame them? I love watching the expression on their face while sinking the spoon into the softness of this dessert.

Panna Cotta Story.

The origins of this dessert are surely in the modern era, although we can find some recipes with “creamy milk” even in the Roman era, with Apicio.

This dessert was probably created in Piemonte (a region in North of Italy), but many people say that it comes from Sicily, from the popular dessert “Bianco Mangiare”. This last is made with almond milk.

panna cotta and fresh strawberries
Photo by Karly Gomez on Unsplash

Panna Cotta from Tuscany

Recipe by Erika Elia (CuocheinVacanza.com)

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 5 minutes
Total time: 25 minutes
Serves: 5

Ingredients

500 ml (1/2 liter) fresh heavy cream
80 gr (3 ounces) caster sugar
10 gr (0,35 once) gelatine leaves**
1/2 Vanilla pod split lengthwise

Instructions

Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for about 10 minutes
Bring to a simmer: fresh cream, sugar, and vanilla pod
Remove pan from the heat for about 10 minutes and allow the vanilla to leave all the scents and aroma in the infusion.
Remove the vanilla pod
Squeeze the water out of the gelatine leaves and add the leaves to the pan with fresh cream
Stir until the gelatine is completely dissolved
Pour the mixture in 5 ramekins (100ml) and leave to cool
Place into the fridge for at least 3 hours or a whole night if you’d like preparing your panna cotta in advance

**SUBSTITUTION:

1 (0.25 oz.) envelope granulated gelatin =

1 tablespoon powdered gelatin =

3 sheets leaf gelatin; anyway remember that you need 0,35oz, so a bit more

Little tip:

don’t throw the vanilla bean, but dry it with kitchen paper and put it in a jar with caster sugar. You’ll obtain a delicious vanilla-flavored sugar in a few days.