Antonio's Favorite Panna Cotta

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Molly O'Neill is our Food Editor. She is the former food columnist for The New York Times Magazine. O'Neill is the author of three cookbooks, including the best-selling New York Cookbook (Workman Publishing, 1992), A Well Seasoned Appetite (Penguin, 1997), and The Pleasure of Your Company (Viking, 1997). She was the host of the PBS series Great Food, and edited the critically acclaimed anthology American Food Writing (Library of America, 2007). Her latest work, Mostly True: A Memoir of Family, Food, and Baseball (Scribner, 2006), recounts her childhood of growing up in a Major-League baseball family.

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by Molly O'Neill

Antonio Lucchini, age 3, is a special-needs child who fell madly in love with this dessert when he tasted it. It is inspired by one served at Delfina Restaurant in San Francisco, a benchmark for all panna cottas. His grandmother Joyce developed this recipe for the creamy dessert, and it passed the taste test. “Antonio could eat it all day, every day,” she says. The dessert can be served alone or, in the summer, with fresh berries.

1 envelope gelatin softened in 4 tablespoons cold water
3 cups heavy cream
8 to 12 tablespoons sugar
1 cup buttermilk
Juice of 1 lemon

1. Place the gelatin in the water and allow to soften or “bloom” for about ten minutes.

2. Heat the cream and the sugar. Add the softened gelatin and stir until it dissolves.

3. Stir the cream mixture into the buttermilk and add the juice of 1 lemon. Cool slightly and pour into custard cups. Refrigerate until set, about 6 hours or overnight. Unmold and serve as is or with berries.

Serves 8.