Make this yogurt and honey panna cotta, then check out our lemon trifle, raspberry roulade, summer pudding and more easy summer desserts.
Recipe writer Rosie says: "High summer is upon us now and there’s a tangible feeling of ripeness about it – the sea is warm enough for a daily dip and the gardens and parks have turned from lush and dewy to blousy, abundant and positively humming with life. I always feel like summer sort of sneaks up on me. I seem to put so much energy into anticipating and preparing for the season – planting and tending things to harvest and eat, sorting the garden so it’s not a total embarrassment during lazy summer lunches, and dreaming about the simple seasonal menus I’ll throw together – then all of a sudden it’s here, hot and flying by.
"For the sake of absolute transparency, this year we haven’t done as much on the growing food front as I might like, due to the fact we have been nurturing our baby daughter with the startled, sleep-deprived, all-encompassing befuddlement of new parents for the past few months, leaving little time for growing much else. But while our patch has been somewhat neglected, it’s not totally unfruitful – we still have a few serviceable pots of tomatoes, a nice little yield of the sweetest strawberries and white currants, and a tangle of peppery, brightly flowering nasturtiums.
"Our garden was apparently once an orchard and, though the former owners seemingly didn’t plant any fruiting trees apart from a sprawling sweet chestnut, I’ve been determined to restore it to its former fruit-bearing status. I’ve planted Cox apple, crab apple, morello cherry, mulberry and cherry plum saplings, which are sadly still a few years off fruiting. One day I’ll hopefully be rolling in the sweet stuff but for now I’m hitting up the local greengrocer and pick-your-own farms, which are flush with fruit at this time of year, from piles of shining Kent cherries, to fuzzy, fragrant peaches and golden apricots.
"In summer, fruit becomes part of our daily life, often enjoyed unadorned and just warmed by the sun on our light-flooded kitchen table. This month’s recipe – a wobbly, creamy panna cotta sharpened by natural yogurt and sweetened with floral honey – makes the perfect accompaniment for all the fruits of the moment. I hope you enjoy it, whether it’s with a honey-glazed barbecued peach, tumble of macerated strawberries, smush of raspberry coulis or perfectly ripe fig. If you do happen to have your own fig tree, try infusing the warm cream mixture with some of the younger leaves when you add the vanilla – these will add a beautiful figgy, coconutty edge to the pudding."
You will need four dariole moulds for this recipe.
