Pomegranate White Wine Panna Cotta

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It’s the holiday season! I love this time of year for two reasons.  One is that I get to see my family and friends a lot more than normal and the other is that I get to make everyone a lot of good food.  Last weekend I was lucky enough to have my brother and his fiancée come to visit for the holidays.  Whenever they come to town he likes to choose what I make for dinner then I wow him with a dessert of my choosing.

    He also usually brings us a bottle of wine that we have with dinner.  I know whenever I go anywhere around the holidays and don’t know what to take with me, a great hostess gift is always a bottle of one of my favorite wines.  So in anticipation of having wine with dinner, I decided to work up a menu plan for the weekend and include some of my go to wines as both beverages and in the meals. 

I’m so thankful that I have enough food to eat and enough to share with my family.  So when my arrived I served baked brie cheese en croute as a snack before dinner.  For dinner we had Polenta over Mozzarella, Greens, and Sausage along with salads and bread which I served with Gallo Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon.  Then came dessert.  As you know, dessert is my specialty.  I had a bottle of Gallo Family Vineyards Moscato and decided to use it in both my dessert and a beverage for the dessert course to make a great ending for our memorable holiday meal.

The Moscato is such a crisp wine with some sweetness that made a wonderful cranberry sangria.  I served that with a Pomegranate White Wine Panna Cotta.  The colors were beautiful and the creaminess of the panna cotta worked so well with the sweetness of the wine and the tartness of the pomegranate seeds.  Overall a perfect dessert.

Pomegranate White Wine Panna Cotta (adapted from Pastry Affair)

For the Vanilla Panna Cotta:
1 packet (2 1/4 t.) unflavored powdered gelatin
3 T. cold water
1 c. heavy cream
1 c. 2% milk
¼ c. granulated sugar
½ t. salt
2 t. vanilla

For the Pomegranate White Wine Syrup:
1 c. Gallo Family Vineyards Moscato wine
1 T. sugar
3/4 c. pomegranate seeds

1.  Pour the water into a small bowl and sprinkle with gelatin.  Whisk together and allow to sit for 5 minutes.

2.  In a large saucepan combine the heavy cream, milk, sugar, and salt over medium heat.  Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly.  Add in the gelatin mixture and stir constantly for 2 minutes.

3.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

4.  Divide evenly between 4 individual dishes.  Refrigerate for at least 4-6 hours.

5.  To make the syrup, bring the Moscato and sugar to a slow simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Add in 1/4 cup of pomegranate seeds.  Simmer until the wine reduces by half then remove from heat and strain the pomegranate seeds out of the syrup.  Refrigerate the syrup until ready to use.

6.  To serve remove the panna cotta from the refrigerator. Spoon the syrup on top of the panna cottas and sprinkle with remaining pomegranate seeds.  Serve immediately.