• Pour 125 ml (½ cup) of the milk in a wide, shallow dish and scatter the gelatine all over and leave to soak for 10 minutes.
  250 ml whole milk (full fat), 2 tsp gelatine powder
• Rinse and hull the strawberries by removing the green top and stem with a paring knife or a strawberry huller.
  400 g fresh strawberries
• Place them in a blender along with the other half of the fresh milk. Blend to a smooth paste.
• Strain through a fine sieve, pressing down on the fruit pulp to extract as much of the fruit as possible.
• Combine the cream and sugar in a saucepan and heat gently and bring to boil. Keep an eye on it as it will suddenly rush up!
  250 ml double cream, 6 Tbsp white sugar
• Take off the heat and add the soaked gelatine and stir until dissolved.
• Pour this hot milk/cream mix into the strawberry purée, stirring well.
• Pour into 6 moulds or glasses. Cover with cling film and place in the fridge for a minimum of 6 hours, preferably overnight for the panna cotta to firm up well.

Balsamic Strawberries

• About 30 minutes to and hour before serving, get the balsamic strawberries ready. Rinse, dry and hull the 12 strawberries.
  12 strawberries
• Quarter them and place them in a bowl.
• Add the balsamic vinegar, sugar and pepper if using, and stir well. Cover, and leave aside for 30-60 minutes, stirring 2-3 times in that time.
  2 tsp white sugar, 4 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, freshly ground black pepper

Serve up

• If you poured the warm panna cotta into moulds, dip the moulds into hot water for 3 seconds, then invert the moulds onto your serving plates and gently remove the moulds off the panna cotta. No need to unmould if you are using glasses.
• Top each panna cotta with 8 little strawberry quarters, drizzling a little of the balsamic vinegar on the panna cotta. Serve immediately.