Sweet of the Week: Panna Cotta at Pizza Rustica

Panna cotta features prominently on the list of desserts I never order because they put me to sleep out of boredom, like a horse tranquilizer right to the neck. It's generally hard for me to get excited about jiggly custard with the standard medley of chocolate, fruit coulis, berries, yada yada. But that's not to suggest I can't be wowed by an incredible panna cotta. In fact, when a good one comes along that I actually like, it's all the more impressive that a chef/pastry chef is able to coax such flavors and textures out of something typically generic. I had such an ethereal experience capping off a recent meal at Pizza Rustica, a Lakeview restaurant that goes well beyond pizza with exemplary salads, fish dishes, pasta, and lots more. The biggest stunner of the meal, though, was the dessert, especially considering it was the course I was expecting the least from. Consider me a panna cotta convert.


Panna cotta
(Panna cotta at Pizza Rustica)


The panna cotta at Pizza Rustica is a bit of a jiggly revelation. Gone are all the ho-hum traits that typically plague panna cotta: the muted vanilla flavor, the tepid Jell-O texture, the bland berry accents. Rather, the restaurant colors outside the lines with a panna cotta that defies standards in every way. The first thing you'll notice is the oddball shape, a far cry from most panna cottas, presented in a too-perfect circular ring mold that makes the dessert look like it was manufactured on an assembly line by saccharine robots. This panna cotta is more haphazard and homely, with a delicate texture that won't beat you over the head with gelatin. It's more like a slightly chilled pudding, with a pleasant toasty color akin to s'more-y marshmallows. It doesn't taste very dissimilar from a s'more either, surprisingly enough. There's a caramelized flavor adjoined by chocolate and some powdered sugar. Overall, the whole thing is fairly simple, just a rustic, refined version of the norm. And in this case, rustic and refined clearly wins the day.


- Matt Kirouac

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