Panna Cotta with Blackberry Zinfandel Compote

This past Saturday I got together with a group of girlfriends to have an Italian dinner. I've shared that I brought Stuffed Red Peppers and Panna Cotta. Both of these were such a hit that I had to share the recipes here as well.

Picture from CookingLight.com

Ingredients

• 1 envelope unflavored gelatin
• 1 2/3 cups almond milk (such as Almond Breeze), divided
• 2/3 cup half-and-half
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 (6-inch) piece vanilla bean, split lengthwise and divided - I used vanilla extract since I couldn't find a bean
  
• Cooking spray

Preparation

Sprinkle gelatin over 1/3 cup almond milk in a small bowl; let stand 4 minutes.

Combine 1 1/3 cups of almond milk, half-and-half, sugar, and the vanilla bean (extract in my case) in a medium saucepan; bring to a simmer over medium heat (do not boil). Remove from heat.

Add gelatin mixture, stirring until the gelatin dissolves. If using a whole vanilla bean, remove vanilla bean. Pour mixture evenly into 6 (6-ounce) custard cups coated with cooking spray. Cover and chill 8 hours or overnight.

For the Compote, here is the recipe I used.

• 3 cups frozen blackberries, thawed and divided
• 1/4 cup zinfandel or other fruity dry red wine
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar

To prepare compote, place 1 cup blackberries, wine, and granulated sugar in a food processor, and process until smooth. Strain the blackberry mixture through a fine sieve into a medium saucepan, and discard solids. If you don't have a sieve, you'll be ok, it will just have the seeds in the sauce. Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat; add remaining 2 cups blackberries. Cool completely.

NOTE: For everything I substituted a Splenda/Sugar mix for the straight sugar.