For those of you that do not look forward to fresh strawberries every year, I pity you. One of the simplest joys in life is holding onto the leaves of strawberry and biting in and savoring the sweet, succulent juiciness that is a ripe strawberry, maybe even licking the dribbling juice that starts to flow down your chin. Tuscan food lovers are not different than Americans when it comes to these ruby colored little treats and will eat them in almost every incarnation possible.

But here is one of my favorites, combining the sweet juiciness of the ripe strawberries with the creamy decadence that is panna cotta, life does not get much better.

INGREDIENTS

For the compote (this is actually good over pancakes and other things as well so a double recipe of this would not go to waste)

3/4 lb strawberries

1/4 cup orange juice

2 tsp granulated sugar

For the panna cotta

1lb sliced strawberries

1 3/4 cup buttermilk, vigorously shaken

6 tbsp granulated sugar

2 1/2 tsp gelatin (plain)

1/2 cup half and half

DIRECTIONS

For panna cotta

Put your strawberries, buttermilk and sugar into the blender and blend until very smooth, at least three minutes. Strain thoroughly, you want no solids left or they won’t gel as well. Put half of your half and half in a bowl and add the gelatin and let it sit. Take the other half, warm slowly to a boil, stirring very regularly and add the gelatin after you have achieved a boil. When all the gelatin has dissolved pour your warm cream mixture into your strawberry mixture and stir until you have an even consistency. Pour into gelatin molds and set, overnight is the best option.

For compote

Warm the ingredients just enough for the sugar to dissolve and have the mixture coat the strawberries and then pour over the panna cotta.

Two variations I like on this are making extra compote and warming until the berries are softened to top pancakes the next day, and adding a little Cointreau when beginning the compote. Yum.