100 g good-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken into pieces
Method
Put the milk, vanilla pod and seeds, tea bags or tea and half the
cream in a small pan and slowly simmer for about 10 minutes until
reduced by a third. Remove from the heat and extract the tea bags (put
the mixture through a sieve if you've used loose tea or your tea bags
have burst). Squeeze out the gelatine, discarding the soaking water,
then stir the gelatine into the tea mixture and leave to dissolve. Allow
to cool a little, then place in the fridge, stirring occasionally until
the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Remove the vanilla pod.
Whip together the icing sugar and the remaining cream. Mix the two cream
mixtures together. Divide into four metal moulds (small glasses or
cappuccino cups also work well). Cover and chill for at least an hour.
Meanwhile, place the caster sugar, the water and the cocoa in a small
saucepan and bring to the boil. Take off the heat and stir in the broken
chocolate. Stir until dissolved and warm briefly before serving.
To serve, sometimes I dip the mould or cup into some simmering water to
loosen the pannacotta, then turn it out on to a plate and spoon the
chocolate sauce around it, or – especially if you feel the mixture is a
bit wet – you can simply serve the dessert in its cup with chocolate
sauce poured over the top.
