Panna cotta is an Italian dessert of sweetened cream thickened with gelatin and molded. The cream may be aromatized with coffee, vanilla, or other flavorings. Sugar is dissolved in warm cream. The cream may be flavored, either by infusing spices and the like in it, or by adding rum, coffee, vanilla, and so on. Gelatin is softened in a cold liquid, then added to the warm cream mixture. This is poured into molds and allowed to set. The molds may have caramel in the bottoms, giving a result similar to a crème caramel.

Although the name means 'cooked cream', the ingredients are only warmed enough to dissolve the gelatin and sugar. Italian recipes sometimes call for colla di pesce 'fish glue', which may literally be isinglass or more likely simply a name for common gelatin.