Lime Marscapone Panna Cotta w/Raspberry Coulis

Panna Cotta is a dessert that I came to late in life. Growing up in Payette, Idaho there weren't many (actually any) ethnic Italian families. Dessert at my house usually consisted of Popsicles, Ice Milk (Ice Cream was for company), a Betty Crocker Cake or if we were really lucky we got to go to the Dairy Queen and get a sundae. It would take until I was well into my 20's to discover the joys of desserts like Tiramisu and Biscotti with Vin Santo.
Panna Cotta is a dessert that fights well above its weight. It so simple (basically it is a cream Jello) that I am curious as to why we haven't seen a Jell-O brand mix for this (note to self-get do a patent search).
I thought I would try and kill two birds with one stone. First I wanted make an entry into the Royal Foodie Joust cooking contest for June. The three theme ingredients for this month are raspberries, lime and almonds. Secondly, I was fortunate enough to be going to Heather and Scott's house for dinner. Heather writes Gild the Voodoolily and this happens to be a case of where a blog friend also only lives about 5 minutes from my house (I am the luckiest boy in the whole world). I will have to do a separate post regarding the dinner. So, without further fanfare, here is my entry for the June Royal Foodie Joust (if I hadn't been a knuckle-head and missed the entry cut off time)-oh well, there is always next time.

Lime Marscapone Panna Cotta w/ Raspberry Coulis
Ingredients:
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons grated lime peel
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
1 1/4 cups whipping cream, divided
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese or cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
Small handful of fresh raspberries for garnish

1 cup fresh raspberries
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 lemon-juiced


Preparation
Combine 1/4 cup juice and peel in small saucepan; sprinkle gelatin over. Let stand 5 minutes. Add 1/4 cup cream to gelatin mixture; stir over low heat just until gelatin dissolves. Remove from heat.

Whisk mascarpone and 1/2 cup sugar in medium bowl; gradually whisk in remaining 1 cup cream until smooth. Stir this mixture of very low heat until the cream just starts to simmer then remove from the heat .
Whisk gelatin mixture into cream mixture. Pour 4 ramakins or wine glasses. Chill until set, at least 4 hours or overnight.

For the coulis stir the lemon juice juice, 1/4 cup sugar, and the berries together in a small sauce pan. Gentle heat and let simmer for 5 minutes. Puree the raspberry mixture in a blender then strain the mixture through a mesh sieve and refrigerate .
To plate, warm the ramakins to help loosen the panna cotta, invert and plate-spoon or use a squeeze bottle decorate the plate with the Raspberry coulis and then grate peel from 1 lime directly over desserts.

I also baked Belgian Touile cookies (my son didn't think it was possible to get that much butter into a cookie) that I hand dipped in chocolate and dusted with almonds for the Coup de grâce