Serious Eats: Recipes
Vanilla, Cinnamon, and Lime Panna Cotta
[Photograph: Max Falkowitz]
This recipe comes straight from one of my favorite places to eat in Chicago, Birrieria Zaragoza. All they serve is birria, a Mexican goat stew served with fresh thick tortillas, and it's impeccable, moan-worthy. But on my last pilgrimage, chef Jonathan Zaragoza offered me this dessert, the best panna cotta I've ever eaten.
When vanilla is used in a recipe, it's usually either as a star role, like in ice cream and crème brûlée, or shoved as far to the background as possible. This recipe offers a rare in-between. The vanilla is assertive, but it shares equal billing with Mexican cinnamon and lime. There's a little flourish of toasted almonds here if you'd like it, but this recipe is really about the complex interplay of spice in a creamier-than-creamy, not-too-sweet dessert.
This panna cotta is best eaten the day it is made, when it isn't too firmly set.
