Panna Cotta with Rhubarb Sauce

Yesterday we had friends over for dinner.
After we all were stuffed from the "main course" (we made burgers again) I was happy that everyone of us still had a little room left for dessert.
The burgers were already quite rich  so I originally intended to prepare something light for dessert.
Well, since Panna Cotta is based on cream and sugar it cannot really be considered as being especially light. But with all that delicious fruit sauce it doesn't seem to be heavy at all!
See? You can actually trick yourself!
I can't promise you that you can trick your scale or your skintight jeans with that, though...

Panna Cotta is very easy to make.
It doesn't require many ingredients or complicated techniques.

All you need for 4 servings is:

four small bowls
500ml cream
50g white sugar
1 vanilla bean
2,5 leaves gelatine

Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for about 5-ten minutes until soft.
Slice the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon.
Pour the cream into a saucepan and mix in sugar and vanilla seeds.
add the scraped out vanilla bean, as well to for additional flavor.
Bring the cream to a boil. Then let it simmer (not boil anymore) for about 15 minutes or until the sugar has dissolved. Whisk occasionally.

Remove the cream from heat and also remove the vanilla bean.
Now squeeze out the excess water in the gelatine leaves and add them to the cream.
Whisk until the gelatine has dissolved.

Now pour the cream into four small bowls or cups, cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours.

In order to unmold the Panna Cotta briefly dip the bottom of the bowls/cups into hot water.
Run a thin knife around the edge of each bowl/cup to losen the cream from the inside.
Place a plate topside down on top of each bowl. Invert the cream onto the plate and shake gently to release it. Then carefully lift off the bowl.

You can also just eat it out of the bowl, of course!

For the rhubarb sauce cut 500g of rhubarb into 2cm thick pieces.
Place the pieces in a saucepan.
Add approx. 100g white sugar, 4 Tbsp of water and 1 Tbsp of vanilla sugar and bring to boil.
Let it boil for about 5-10minutes (depends on how soft you want your rhubarb to be).
If the sauce is too thin mix a teaspoon of starch in a small bowl with water and slowly whisk in the starch-water mix into the rhubarb sauce. This will thicken the sauce.

Serve the rhubarb sauce with the Panna Cotta.

Al Contadino Sotto Le Stelle

Not only is 'Al Contadino Sotto Le Stelle' one of my favorite restaurants here in Berlin. 

Marjita(?), our waitress of the night, offered us incredibly good tasting red wine: 

Tormaresca Torcicoda Primitivo Salento (2008).

But let's start at the beginning.

The Italian restaurant 'Al Contadino sotto le stelle' is located on Auguststrasse 36 in 10119  Berlin Mitte.

You'll find homemade pasta, veil, rabbit, fish, tartufo, prosciutto etc on the menu; 

solid Italian cuisine that is both, rustic and fine, at the same time.

'Al Contadino' is not a cheap restaurant. It's rather a restaurant where to go on a date.

Me and my partner went there for our anniversary and had:

• Prosciutto with fruit mustard
• Entrecote with truffle
• Homemade Chestnut-flour Tagliatelle with veil liver, apple and truffle oil
• Warm chocolate-hazelnut cake with vanilla ice cream.

Sadly they had to move out of their original venue which was even more cosy and romantic.

Their new location is a little less intimate and on our last visit we discovered that the tables in the front are cramped.
But sitting in the back of the restaurant can be quite loud and busy with waiters rushing past. 

Still it is one of my favorite restaurants. 

The food is excellent and the service is very friendly and knowledgeable.

PS: The name of the restaurant means 'The Farmer Underneath The Starry Sky'.