Recipe
Lemon Panna Cotta and Cannoli
Tony's Town Square
Magic Kingdom

Yield: 8 servings.

Cannoli filling:
1/2 pound ricotta cheese
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 tablespoon heavy cream
8 tablespoons confectioners sugar
Zest of 1/2 orange
Zest of 1/2 lemon
Ground chocolate

Cannoli pastry shells

Candied zest:
Zest of 3 lemons
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
Granulated sugar for dusting

Lemon panna cotta:
1 quart heavy cream
6 ounces sugar
2 ounces fresh lemon juice
2 vanilla beans
4 ounces warm water
1/4 ounce powdered gelatin
Zest of 1/2 orange
Zest of 1/2 lemon

For the panna cotta, slit vanilla and scrape the flavorful bits from the bean. Dissolve gelatin in warm water. Add heavy cream, lemon zest, fresh lemon juice, the vanilla scrapings and sugar. Stir and let cook until it reaches 160 F. Portion the liquid into 8 ceramic dishes. Chill overnight in the refrigerator.

For the cannoli filling, combine ricotta, vanilla, chopped lemon zest, chopped orange zest, heavy cream, ground cinnamon and confectioners sugar. Set in the refrigerator. When chilled, pipe mixture into pastry shells. Gently press ends into ground chocolate.

For candied zest, combine the water and sugar in a saucepan. When the sugar dissolves, add the lemon zest. Cook 5-7 minutes or until the zest is tender. Drain into a fine mesh sieve and place zest on paper toweling. Dust with sugar. Air-dry for 1 hour.

To serve, present panna cotta with a cannoli and some of the candied lemon zest.