What Is Panna Cotta? Ingredients, Taste and Carbs

On this page

1. What is panna cotta?
2. What panna cotta means
3. Where panna cotta comes from
4. How panna cotta is made
5. What panna cotta tastes like
6. Is panna cotta vegetarian?
7. Panna cotta vs crème brûlée, custard and blancmange
8. How panna cotta is served
9. Buying and storing panna cotta
10. Carbs in panna cotta
11. Panna cotta with our products
12. FAQs
13. Sources

It wobbles on the plate, it comes in twin pots in the supermarket chiller, and it's often served with a bright berry sauce. But if you've never made it, you might wonder what is panna cotta exactly, and how it differs from custard or crème brûlée. This guide explains what panna cotta is, what the name means, where it comes from, how it's made and set, whether it's vegetarian, how it's served, how to store it and how many carbs it has.

What is panna cotta?

Wikipedia describes panna cotta as an Italian dessert of sweetened cream thickened with gelatin and moulded, which may be flavoured with coffee, vanilla or other flavours. Its main ingredients are cream, sugar, gelatine and vanilla. It's a cold, set dessert: the warm, sweetened cream is poured into moulds, left in the fridge until it sets, then usually turned out onto a plate.

In the Guardian's "How to make perfect panna cotta", food writer Felicity Cloake describes it as generally made from cream and set with gelatine, which makes it richer and smoother than British blancmange. She notes that it's often served in small, espresso-sized portions with fresh fruit.

Panna cotta is sometimes called a custard, but Wikipedia points out that true custard is thickened with egg yolks, not gelatine. That's the key difference between panna cotta and the egg-based desserts it's often compared with.

What panna cotta means

Panna cotta is Italian for "cooked cream". Wikipedia gives the Italian pronunciation as [ˈpanna ˈkɔtta], close to "PAN-na KOT-ta".

The name is a little misleading. Wikipedia explains that the ingredients are only heated enough to dissolve the gelatine and sugar, and Felicity Cloake writes that, despite the name, there's no cooking involved. In BBC Good Food's vanilla panna cotta, for example, the milk and cream are brought to a simmer and then taken off the heat before the gelatine goes in.

Where panna cotta comes from

Panna cotta is often cited as a traditional dessert of Piedmont in northern Italy, yet Wikipedia notes that the name doesn't appear in Italian cookbooks before the 1960s. The Piedmont region included panna cotta in its 2001 list of traditional food products, with a recipe of cream, milk, sugar, vanilla, gelatine, rum and marsala poured into a mould with caramel.

Its earlier history is less certain. According to Wikipedia:

• An 1879 Italian dictionary mentions latte inglese ("English milk"), made of cream cooked with gelatine and moulded, though other sources describe latte inglese as made with egg yolks.
• The dish might also come from the French chef Marie-Antoine Carême's fromage bavarois, which is the same as modern panna cotta except that part of the cream is whipped before the gelatine is added.
• One unverified story says panna cotta was invented by a Hungarian woman in the Langhe, in Piedmont, in the early 19th century.
• Panna cotta became fashionable in the United States in the 1990s.

How panna cotta is made

Wikipedia sets out the basic method: sugar is dissolved in warm cream, which can be flavoured with vanilla, coffee, rum or spices. Gelatine is softened in a cold liquid, usually water, and added to the warm cream. The mixture is poured into moulds, left to set, and then usually turned out onto a plate.

Here's how two well-known UK recipes compare, each making four servings.

BBC Good Food "Vanilla panna cotta" (Elena Silcock) and Felicity Cloake's "How to make perfect panna cotta" in the Guardian. Checked 13 November 2026.

In the BBC Good Food recipe, the gelatine sheets soak in cold water for 5 minutes. The milk, cream, sugar and vanilla seeds are brought to a simmer and taken off the heat, then the squeezed-out gelatine is stirred in until it dissolves. The mixture goes into four ramekins and sets in the fridge for at least a couple of hours.

Leaf or powdered gelatine

BBC Good Food's gelatine guide says gelatine comes as leaves or powder. Powdered gelatine is sold in most supermarkets, usually with instructions on how much you need to set a given amount of liquid, but most cooks prefer leaves because they dissolve quickly and are clear, with no flavour or smell. Leaves are soaked in cold water for about five minutes and squeezed out; powder is sprinkled into cold water until it swells, then stirred into the hot liquid.

BBC Good Food also warns that the liquid shouldn't be boiling when the gelatine goes in, and shouldn't be brought to the boil afterwards, or the gelatine will lose its setting properties.

Getting the wobble right

A good panna cotta should hold its shape but still wobble. Felicity Cloake found the set the hardest part to judge: too much gelatine and it turns unpleasantly chewy, too little and "you've got yourself a sauce". She settled on a ratio of about 2:1 double cream to milk and buttermilk for a flavour that's rich but not sickly.

To turn panna cotta out, BBC Good Food suggests turning each ramekin upside down onto a plate and, if it won't drop out, dipping the ramekin briefly in warm water to loosen it. The Guardian recipe greases the moulds first and uses a quick dip in boiling water.

What panna cotta tastes like

Panna cotta tastes creamy and mild, with a gentle sweetness. BBC Food describes it as deliciously light and creamy, and Waitrose calls its No.1 Raspberry Panna Cotta silky smooth. Felicity Cloake quotes the Oxford Companion to Food's advice that "if a flavouring is used, it should be delicate", so the cream stays the main flavour.

Vanilla is a common choice, used in both the BBC Good Food recipe and Waitrose's No.1 version, but Felicity Cloake notes that panna cotta works with anything from caramel to saffron, and that Nigel Slater, Denis Cotter and Giorgio Locatelli all use rose water and vanilla. Wikipedia mentions coffee and rum as flavourings, and notes that one author considers peach eau de vie the traditional one.

Is panna cotta vegetarian?

Classic panna cotta usually isn't, because it's set with gelatine. BBC Good Food describes gelatine as a setting agent made from the boiled bones, skins and tendons of animals, and Wikipedia says it's made from the collagen of animals such as cattle, pigs, chickens and fish. The Vegetarian Society's criteria for its vegetarian trademark exclude gelatine.

Shop-bought panna cotta varies, so the label is the place to check:

• Waitrose No.1 Raspberry Panna Cotta lists pork gelatine.
• Tesco Finest Raspberry & Prosecco Panna Cotta lists beef gelatine.
• Sainsbury's Caramel Panna Cotta uses agar, carrageenan and cornflour instead of gelatine.

Agar is a jelly-like substance made from red algae, and Wikipedia lists it as a vegan substitute for gelatine. Felicity Cloake also mentions Irish chef Denis Cotter's version, which uses sheep's yoghurt and carrageen, a seaweed also known as Irish moss.

Panna cotta vs crème brûlée, custard and blancmange

Panna cotta is one of several creamy, set desserts. What sets it apart is how it thickens.

Based on Wikipedia's Panna cotta, Crème brûlée, Custard and Blancmange pages and the Guardian. Checked 13 November 2026.

Wikipedia describes crème brûlée, also called burnt cream or Trinity cream, as a rich custard base topped with a layer of hardened caramelised sugar, made with cream, sugar, egg or egg yolks and vanilla. Felicity Cloake writes that British blancmange is typically made with cow's milk and thickened with cornflour, while panna cotta is made from cream and set with gelatine, so it's much richer and smoother. Wikipedia also notes that pouring panna cotta into moulds lined with caramel gives a result similar to crème caramel. For more on egg-thickened desserts, read our guide to what custard is, from egg custard to crème anglaise.

How panna cotta is served

Wikipedia says panna cotta is often served with a coulis of berries, or with a caramel or chocolate sauce, and may be topped with other fruit or liqueurs. These are some of the most common ways to serve it:

• With berries. BBC Good Food serves its vanilla panna cotta with sliced fresh strawberries and a drizzle of strawberry compote, and Felicity Cloake suggests late summer berries for a sharp contrast.
• With caramel. Setting panna cotta over caramel is part of the traditional Piedmont recipe. If you'd like a caramel to pour over yours, see our keto salted caramel sauce recipe.
• With chocolate. A chocolate sauce is another classic pairing, according to Wikipedia.
• With winter flavours. BBC Food suggests pairing panna cotta with Christmas spices and a dried fruit compote for a winter dessert.

Buying and storing panna cotta

Waitrose, Tesco and Sainsbury's all sell own-label panna cotta in twin packs, topped with a compote, a jelly or a caramel sauce. Here's how the three compare per 100g.

Figures from each retailer's product page: Waitrose No.1 2 Raspberry Panna Cotta Desserts 2x100g, Tesco Finest 2 Raspberry & Prosecco Panna Cotta 194g and Sainsbury's Caramel Panna Cotta 2x120g. Checked 13 November 2026.

Panna cotta is a chilled dessert, so follow the pack. Waitrose says to keep its panna cotta flat and refrigerated below 5°C. Tesco says to consume its Finest version within 1 day of opening and by the use-by date, and Sainsbury's says not to exceed the use-by date and not to freeze its Caramel Panna Cotta. GOV.UK explains that use-by dates are about safety, and that if a label tells you to refrigerate food, you should keep it in a fridge at 5°C or below.

Carbs in panna cotta

CoFID, the UK's main food composition dataset, doesn't list panna cotta, so the figures depend on the recipe or the label. On the shop-bought labels above, 100g has between 16.6g and 31.8g of carbohydrate, most of it sugar.

For a homemade panna cotta, here's our own estimate for one of the four servings in BBC Good Food's vanilla recipe, using CoFID figures for each ingredient.

Our own calculation from the BBC Good Food recipe quantities divided by four, treating 1ml as 1g. CoFID 2021 codes 12-334 (Cream, fresh, double, including Jersey cream; 1.7g carbohydrate per 100g), 12-596 (Milk, whole, pasteurised, average; 4.6g) and 17-360 (Gelatine; 0g). The caster sugar is counted at its own weight. Checked 13 November 2026.

The sugar makes up most of the carbohydrate. Without it, the cream and milk in one serving add about 3.4g, all of it lactose, the natural sugar in milk, according to CoFID.

Is panna cotta keto?

Traditional and shop-bought panna cotta are made with sugar, so on our estimate a homemade serving has about 18.4g of carbohydrate, and the labels above show between 16.6g and 31.8g per 100g. A version sweetened with a sugar alternative instead leaves mainly the carbohydrate from the cream and milk, about 3.4g per serving in the BBC Good Food quantities, plus anything the sweetener adds. Using all cream rather than some milk changes the figure again, so check your own recipe.

Panna cotta with our products

Sweetened cream, vanilla, caramel and chocolate all come up in the classic panna cotta above. If you'd rather not use sugar, here's how our products can fit in, based on what each product page says.

• To sweeten the cream. Powdered Erythritol & Stevia Blend is a fine powder of erythritol and stevia in a 1kg pouch. The product page says it replaces icing sugar 1:1, dissolves quickly so it suits cold recipes, and lists whipped cream and desserts among its uses.
• For a vanilla flavour. Groovy Keto Liquid Stevia Drops come in Vanilla, Caramel or Chocolate in a 50ml glass dropper bottle. The product page lists 0g of carbohydrate per serving of 4 to 6 drops, mentions whipped cream among its uses, and says to add a few drops at a time because they're so concentrated.
• For a chocolate sauce. Keto Dark Chocolate Buttons are 64% cocoa minimum, sweetened with erythritol and stevia, and come in a 210g pouch. The product page suggests melting them into chocolate sauces and ganache.

Product details are as shown on each product page. Free delivery on orders over £30.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Wikipedia. Panna cotta (definition, name and pronunciation, history, Piedmont 2001 list, preparation, garnishes, related dishes). Checked 13 November 2026.
• Wikipedia. Crème brûlée, Custard, Blancmange, Gelatin and Agar (ingredients, thickeners, sources of gelatine, agar as a vegan substitute). Checked 13 November 2026.
• BBC Good Food. Vanilla panna cotta (Elena Silcock; ingredients, method, setting time, turning out, serving). Checked 13 November 2026.
• BBC Good Food. Gelatine and How to use gelatine (what it's made from, leaf and powder, soaking, chilling time, not boiling). Checked 13 November 2026.
• The Guardian. How to make perfect panna cotta (Felicity Cloake, 25 August 2011; recipe, set, flavourings, blancmange comparison). Checked 13 November 2026.
• BBC Food. Panna cotta recipes (description and serving ideas). Checked 13 November 2026.
• The Vegetarian Society. Trademark criteria (gelatine excluded). Checked 13 November 2026.
• Waitrose. No.1 2 Raspberry Panna Cotta Desserts 2x100g; Tesco. Tesco Finest 2 Raspberry & Prosecco Panna Cotta 194g; Sainsbury's. Sainsbury's Caramel Panna Cotta 2x120g (ingredients, nutrition per 100g, storage). Checked 13 November 2026.
• GOV.UK. Understanding food labelling: Best before and use-by dates. Checked 13 November 2026.
• Public Health England / Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. Composition of foods integrated dataset (CoFID) 2021 (codes 12-334, 12-596 and 17-360). Checked 13 November 2026.
• Groovy Keto product pages: Powdered Erythritol & Stevia Blend, Groovy Keto Liquid Stevia Drops and Keto Dark Chocolate Buttons (sizes, ingredients, flavours, figures, uses and label lines as shown). Checked 13 November 2026.