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Vanilla panna cotta, roasted watermelon, chilled ginger, mint and melon soup

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Italy

Known as an Italian recipe, with similar versions prepared across other nations.

Ingredients 9 ingredients

  1. 3 gelatine leaves (soaked in a bowl with cold water to soften)
  2. 100g/3½oz caster sugar
  3. 1 litre/1¾pints double cream
  4. 7 vanilla pods
  5. 1 tbsp chopped fresh mint
  6. 1 watermelon, cut into 3cm/1¼in cubes (keep any excess, misshapen, watermelon for the soup)
  7. 1 tbsp ground ginger
  8. reserved watermelon
  9. 135g/4¾oz caster sugar
Contains Milk Read from the ingredients, not verified. Check labels.

Cook safely

Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.

  • Hot oil. Never put water on an oil fire: turn off the heat and cover the pan with a lid or a damp tea towel. Pat food dry before it goes into hot oil, and lower it in gently, away from you.
  • Oven and hot trays. Use dry oven gloves for trays and dishes: a hot tray looks just like a cold one. Open the oven door away from your face and let the first rush of heat out.
  • Boiling water and steam. Turn pan handles inward, away from the edge of the hob. Lift lids away from you, and pour hot water away from your body: steam burns too.
  • Hot sugar. Hot sugar sticks to skin and burns far hotter than boiling water: don't touch or taste it. Keep a bowl of cold water close, and keep children away while it cooks.
  • Blending hot liquid. Let it cool a little first, fill the blender no more than a third, and hold the lid down with a folded towel. Start on the lowest speed. A stick blender in the pan is safer.
  • Sharp knives. Cut on a board that doesn't slip (a damp cloth under it helps), and curl the fingers of the hand that holds the food.

Method

  1. For the vanilla panna cotta, put the cream and sugar into a saucepan.
  2. Split the vanilla pods, using a sharp knife scrape the seeds into the cream, and add the pods. Bring to the boil.
  3. Squeeze any excess water from the soaked gelatin. Add it to the hot cream and whisk to dissolve. Pour the mixture into six individual dariole moulds.
  4. Place into the fridge and leave to set.
  5. For the ‘roasted’ watermelon, fry the watermelon in a pan until coloured all over.
  6. For the soup, blend all the excess watermelon in a blender or food processor.
  7. In a pan, heat the sugar and 100ml/3½fl oz water until the sugar dissolves. Leave to cool down. Stir in the mint, ground ginger and blended watermelon and put in the fridge to chill.
  8. Once the panna cotta has set, turn each one out onto a plate.
  9. Serve with the chilled soup and caramelised watermelon chunks.

Plating

Cookware for this recipe

  • Frying pan
  • Saucepan
  • Whisk
  • Blender
  • Food processor
  • Chef's knife
  • Cutting board
  • Wooden spoon
Source Not stated: saved from a website or mailing list, rights unverified
Credit

By: Richard Phillips. From the programme: Chefs: Put Your Menu Where Your Mouth Is. Saved from BBC Food, file Recipes/bbcfood-archives/vanilla_panna_cotta_20752.html in the Internet Archive item cooking-recipes (https://archive.org/details/cooking-recipes).

What was changed: Read by machine from the bbc-food-html text: title, ingredients and method as written, columns closed up and wrapped lines joined; credit lines kept apart; e-mail addresses removed; an all-capitals title given ordinary capitals. Not rewritten.