Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

Dress up your table with our new favorite summer desert

By

Warm weather is finally here, and that means summertime cookouts featuring spreads of foods and fruit-forward, refreshing desserts. While you may have a go-to dessert to make for summer parties and events, everyone loves fresh summer desserts and new dessert ideas. Summer is a great time for berries, and this dessert utilizes them in the form of a delicious raspberry sauce, but you can use strawberries or a combination of any berries that you like or have on hand. Panna cotta is one of those desserts that people think takes a lot of skill to make and will surely impress your friends and family. Don’t worry; we won’t tell them how easy it really is. Keep reading to find out how to make this delicious lemon panna cotta with raspberry sauce.

Ingredients

Panna cotta

  • 4 cups heavy cream
  • ½ cup sugar (or ¼ cup sugar substitute)
  • One vanilla bean split lengthwise and seeds scraped from the pod (or 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract)
  • Two packets of plain powdered gelatin
  • 6 tablespoons cold water
  • Zest from one lemon

Raspberry sauce

  • 2 pints of fresh raspberries (or whatever berries you want to use)
  • ½ cup sugar (or ¼ cup sugar substitute)
  • ½ cup water
  • 1 tablespoon corn starch
  • 2 tablespoons Grand Marnier (substitute the zest of an orange or some pure orange extract if you want an alcohol-free version)
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Instructions

Panna cotta

  1. Heat the heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla in a saucepan until the sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.
  2. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let rest for five minutes.
  3. Stir the gelatin into the warm cream mixture until it is completely dissolved. Stir in lemon zest.
  4. Pour the mixture into molds, glasses, jars, or dishes and cover lightly with plastic wrap. Chill until very firm which will take a minimum of three hours (if you have six hours, that would be best).

Raspberry sauce

  1. Crush raspberries in a medium saucepan and then add sugar and water. Heat until boiling stirring occasionally.
  2. Add corn starch and boil rapidly for two minutes.
  3. Remove from heat and CAREFULLY pour the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl. Discard the solids left behind in the strainer.
  4. Stir in Grand Marnier and cover with plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator until ready for use.

When ready to serve, pour raspberry sauce over panna cotta and garnish with mint leaves, fresh berries, more zest, etc.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Variations and ideas

Once you have the basic recipe and methods down, you can explore other variations of panna cotta. Here are some excellent ideas to try for your next gathering.

  • Make the panna cotta the same way as above, except leave out the lemon zest. Then, use peaches, sugar, Grand Marnier, and corn starch, much like you did above with the berries, to make a sauce. Garnish with blueberries and mint, and you have a peach variation.
  • Switch up the molds and ways that you serve this dessert. Use small jars on a try for larger parties so guests can grab one when they’re ready. On the other hand, it’s nice to unmold them and serve on a dish for a smaller dinner-party-type dessert.
  • If you’re feeling ambitious, make a few different sauces and set out a variety of garnishes, and let people dress their own panna cottas for a little DIY fun.
  • Almond extract in place of the Grand Marnier in any of the sauces will be delicious and alcohol-free.
  • Though this dish is great in the summer since it’s best served cold, you can make a warm apple sauce with cinnamon and vanilla in the winter for a modern twist on warm apple pie and ice cream.
    • A warm brandy and eggnog sauce would also be delicious and crowd-pleasing for the adults.
Recommended Videos

Panna cotta is one of those desserts that really impresses people. If you’re trying to look like a rock star at the next event requiring you to bring a dish, this recipe is for you. With a few simple techniques and some fresh fruit, you’ll be well on your way to showing off your culinary skills without even trying hard.  Kids will love the texture of the dessert too so make sure you make some alcohol-free sauces just in case some ethanol sticks around.

Kelly Kaliszewski
Kelly Kaliszewski
Former Contributor
Kelly's work has appeared in blogs and on websites. When she's not writing, she is playing with her two dogs, cooking, or…

Editors’ Recommendations

Is your wine laced with forever chemicals? What a new study says
This stuff doesn't go away, either
Group toasting with wine glasses

Recent tests conducted by Pesticide Action Network Europe have shown a shocking rise in the detectable levels of TFA, or triflouroacetic acid, in wines sampled from ten EU countries. TFA is a persistent breakdown product of chemicals used in refrigeration and agriculture, and is thought to pose a threat to human reproduction and liver toxicity.

The numbers are alarming. "We see an exponential rise in TFA levels in wine since 2010," the organization wrote in their report. "TFA was not detected in wines from before 1988, while wines from 2021–2024 show average levels of 122 μg/L, with some peaks of over 300 μg/L." Additionally, wines with higher TFA levels also demonstrated increased amounts of synthetic pesticide residues. This was expected, because TFAs have long been associated with long-lasting per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) used in pesticides. According to the EPA, PFAS substances are also found in fluorinated containers, a treatment intended to make these packages less permeable.

Read more
The best gin drinks: Our 5 favorites
The best gin cocktails for you to make at home
Gin cocktail

When it comes to spirits, there are none as unique as gin. When distilled, gin doesn’t have much flavor, save for the ingredients it’s made with. It’s not all that different from vodka. It’s the addition of juniper berries and various herbs and botanicals either in the distillation process itself (or a second distillation), through vapor infusion (the herbs and botanicals are hung in a basket in the still), or through maceration (adding the flavors to an already distilled gin) that give the gin its distinct, memorable aromas and flavors.

If you’ve ever had gin (or even sniffed it), you know the most potent ingredient is juniper berries. They are what gives gin its patented pine tree aroma and flavor. Other common ingredients include orris root, angelica root, orange peel, and licorice.
Our 5 favorite gin drinks

Read more
Up your American single malt whiskey game with Minden Mill’s single estate whiskey
Minden Mill has a new American single malt whiskey perfect for Scotch drinkers
Minden Mill

As if you needed a reason to get into American single malt whiskey, the distillers at Minden Mill Distilling just announced the release of Minden Mill American Single Malt Whiskey. Made from locally sourced ingredients near the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the Nevada desert, this is about as far away from Scotland as possible. Yet, you won't find many American single malt whiskeys that taste more like their counterparts from across the pond.
Minden Mill American Single Malt Whiskey

This terroir-driven whiskey is made with 100% estate-grown barley malted on-site. It's mashed with M1 yeast and water from the brand's well outside the distillery. It's distilled in dual, all-copper Forsyth stills crafted in Speyside, Scotland. It's matured for five years in a combination of Oloroso sherry, ex-bourbon, and American oak as well as re-charred wine and sherry butts. All in climate-controlled barrelhouses designed to mimic the temperature and humidity found in Speyside.

Read more