This recipe is one that I often teach in cooking classes because you can make it year-round (just use frozen blueberries when you can’t find them fresh!) and because the crumbly topping — once you’ve done it once — is something you can begin using to top just about anything. I use it on apple crisps and cobblers, any fruit bar I make these days, and even bake it up on its own to scatter atop vanilla ice cream. I love this topping because it’s slightly nutty, very subtlety-spiced, and not at all too sweet — plus, it’s so simple to throw together.

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Yesterday I shared Chelsea’s lovely kitchen, the charming little space in Portland where she does all her home cooking, prop styling, and floral arranging. Chelsea describes her self as a ‘lazy cook’ — hardly! She whip up the most delightful one-pot meals with only a few tools. Here are the tools she uses most often and what she makes with them.

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Last year I made an ardent case for panna cotta as the perfect dessert: it’s easy, quick, practically foolproof, and accommodating to many dietary adjustments, being naturally gluten-free and adaptable to dairy-free and vegan diets.

Now that I’ve made my case for the merits of this lovely dessert, let’s move on and talk about how luscious it is, how perfectly creamy, in a way that belies its utter simplicity. And let me walk you through making panna cotta, step by step.

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