If you didn't know then Panna Cotta is a traditional Italian dessert made of thickened cream with gelatin. The pudding is molded into shape and served chilled. It can come with toppings from numerous selections that are not limited to berries, vanilla chocolate, or even fresh strawberries.
I was at Vinograd's, which is a winery, looking for goblets to gift my friend on his birthday. They have an amazing collection of goblets, I must agree. On the way to the cashier, this blue color box catches my eye. The giant "Panna Cotta" written over it immediately attracts me.
In the past, I only had Panna Cotta in restaurants. It is a mild yet delicious dessert that keeps me craving for more. I could not believe my eyes when I realized I could now buy ready-made Panna Cotta! I had the same reaction to pre-packed pickled ginger for sushi.
I did some digging and found online menus of the restaurants that I have had panna cotta at. There is an obvious difference between freshly made and packed panna cotta. Freshly made is always much more delicious than any mass-produced and ready-made food item.
The upside, however, is that the ready-made ones are always available and much cheaper than freshly made ones. Here are two from a few restaurants that serve panna cotta in Kharkiv. Trattoria and Pasteria. I have already reviewed Trattoria in an earlier post.
Both the restaurants have a very similar price range and total mass of the dessert. Trattoria serves 100g of strawberry panna cotta for 50 UAH, while Pasteria serves 90g of strawberry panna cotta for 49 UAH.
Apart from the flavor, the weight, the price, the other common thing between the restaurants is that the dessert is freshly made and they always look exactly like as shown in the menu. But just for the sake of taking sides, I prefer the Pasteria panna cotta over Trattoria's.
The Sterilgarda panna cotta comes in a pack of 2 each weighing 90gs. The entire thing costs 49 UAH. Compare that to the restaurants, it is a pretty good deal. Other than that, the Sterilgarda comes in chocolate flavor, which I have personally never tasted. @anggreklestari thinks chocolate is basic. Oh, how wrong is she! 🙄
For the last two years, Kharkiv has been importing a lot of foreign products. Just a few weeks back I found a Turkish-only products shop. The aisles in the supermarkets also boast a huge collection of oil, wheat, instant food, condiments, fish, and more from many other countries that weren't available earlier.
The Sterilgarda is an import from Italy, too. That could explain why I never found this earlier in the shops.
Panna cotta is a simplistic dessert, with most of the magic in the recipe is to do with portions and preparation. It is supposed to be majorly sweetened cream thickened with gelatin, the rest are optional.
The Sterilarda panna cotta con cioccolato is also made with the primary ingredients. Cream, sugar, milk, chocolate, starch, and gelatin. This is gluten-free, with no added colors, and no preservative product.
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At first, I was genuinely flustered. All the negative thoughts about ready-made delicacies were reinforced. Only after I had the first bite I was relieved. It was incredible! There seemed to be no reason to not love this! Really creamy, melty, mild yet delicious, with chocolate flavoring!
It took me a while before realizing that all the chocolate was at the bottom. The ribbed packaging also started making sense. I was supposed to turn the jar upside-down and have it on a saucer. The ribbed container would help to slide the panna cotta out. Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed this. It is a so much more convenient way of enjoying a delicious dessert!
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