It was during a TV reality show, MasterChef Australia , that I first came across a dessert called panna cotta. The name intrigued me, but it was the elegance of its presentation that truly caught my eye. Later, at an Italian restaurant in Bangalore, I finally had the chance to taste it. Smooth, delicate, and beautifully simple, it was love at first spoonful. From that moment on, panna cotta has remained my all-time favorite dessert—an epitome of understated beauty and heavenly flavour. A spoonful of panna cotta is remarkably creamy, melting in the mouth without a trace of grittiness or lumps. Panna cotta is a very basic pudding that is made of dairy thickened with gelatin. It originated in Italy and its name literally means "cooked cream". You can eat it straight out of a cup, but it's often unmolded onto a plate and drizzled with sweet sauce and garnished with fruit. It is not known exactly how or when this dessert came to be, but some theories suggest that crea...