Greek Yogurt Panna Cotta with Strawberry-Rhubarb Sauce

 Now here's a dessert that's easy and fancy. Panna cotta. Basically it's creamy jello. I've seen a few recipes for panna cotta around the food blogosphere lately and it sounded so easy, I just had to try it. What really sealed the deal was my mother-in-law giving me a silicone giant muffin pan (a silicone pan that makes giant muffins, not a pan that makes giant silicone muffins or an unusually-sized muffin pan). It's the perfect panna cotta mould (Nerd pause: I checked the Oxford English Dictionary and the spelling of "mould" and "mold" are interchangeable in terms of meaning. One is not a fungus and the other a shaper. It's a Britsh/American thing. I'm taking the British/Canadian spelling option here. I'm so surprised!); you can easily pop the finished panna cotta out of the cup without creating cracks.

The first recipe I picked was Jason's because he used Greek yogurt instead of some of the cream to lower the fat content. I also thought the tanginess of the yogurt would be nice (I was right!). He topped it with strawberry jam. I opted for a sauce of pureed strawberries and rhubarb which was just delicious.

I can't wait to make more panna cotta. I'd like to try a fruit flavoured panna cotta (maybe pomegranate) with a cream sauce. I also want to try a chai panna cotta as suggested by Dinner with Julie.

Here's the recipe:

Greek Yogurt Panna Cotta with Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce
Adapted from Closet Cooking
Makes 4 giant muffin-sized servings

Ingredients:

Panna Cotta:
1 package powdered gelatin
1/4 cup water
1 cup whipping cream
1/3 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
1 cup Greek yogurt

Sauce:
1 cup strawberries, pureed
1/2 cup rhubarb, pureed
1/4 cup strawberries, sliced
1/4 cup rhubarb sliced
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 package gelatin
1 tbsp water

Instructions:
1. Bring cream, sugar, and vanilla to a simmer in a sauce pan.
2. While cream is heating, combine gelatin and water in a small bowl. Allow to soften.
3. Remove cream from heat and stir in gelatin.
4. In a bowl, whisk yogurt until smooth.
5. Whisk cream mixture into yogurt.
6. Pour into mould sprayed with non-stick spray.
7. Refrigerate until set.
8. In a small sauce pan, add all strawberries, rhubarb, and sugar. Boil gently until it reduces by about 1/3.
9. While fruit is cooking, combine gelatin and water in a small bowl to soften.
10. Remove sauce from heat and stir in gelatin. Allow to cool and thicken.
11. Unmould panna cotta and serve topped with fruit sauce.


Pairs nicely with absolutely nothing. It was glorious on its own.