Hi, a couple of italian friends will be coming at the end of November and they want to know if they'll be able to bring prosciutto and panna to cook here :-)

Thanks,

Biondina

Panna should be OK since it is in a little sealed box. They will have to check it though.

No on the prosciutto, unfortunately.

It must be noticed, though, that panna is readily available in the US too. It's called "cream". The UHT "cooking" panna is just long-life cream that went through a ceontrntration prcess to remove some liquid retaining all of the fat. (And it's pretty disgustingo too, IMHO. But then panna is mainly used to cover up the mistakes done by cooks.)

Panna is a little different, Alice. It's thicker than the cream sold here. And it tastes a little different (to me, anyway.)

It tastes different because of the long-preservation process it goes through, which modifies some sugars as well as proteins (the same occurs with long-life milk, which ought to be avoided if possible since the UHT process makes it less nourishing) and the reason it's more solid it's because it has been strained: put regular cream in a colander with a piece of fabric inside, let it drip overnight and you get fresh cooking panna without the horrible UHT taste. If it tastes different, it's because that's how panna should taste
It is still vile and hugely abused, though, to add panna to any pasta sauce. The habit was born in the 1970's as an easy way to coer up mistakes (excess of salt, sour tomato etc.) and has long since become common pratice. But still an obvious indicator of a quite poor cuisine. Dishes like the ifamous "tortellini panna e prosciutto" (done with prosciutto cotto) are just a deformation of a more traditional sauce of butter and prosciutto (the real stuff). The panna started to be added because often the prosciutto used for this recipe by cheap trattorie was rancid, and the cream covered the rancid taste. With better preservation techniques, the rancid ham disappeared, and the cookes started using prosciutto cotto beause it's cheaper.

As AliceTwain says, panna is just cream. Here in Italy they ultra heat treat it and put it in a little box but it's the same stuff just more processed (and a bit thicker) here.

As far as prosciutto - I guess you mean proscuitto crudo (raw ham) which is available in all good Italian delis in the US. Obviously American prosciutto cotto (cooked ham) is very easily available in the US in any supermarket. Go to the Italian neighbourhood in your town and see what you can find.

The little boxes of panna are definitely available at the Italian shops in my neighbourhood, at Milano (on St-Laurent, between Dante and Mozart) and in Capitol, at the Jean-Talon market. Alice will have a fit thinking of the flavoured pannas.

I'm allergic to cow's milk, and am pleased to be able to get a soya fake panna called soya cuisine. Made a quiche with some yesterday (and some very real goat's cheeses).

In Canada, there used to be a ban on imported Italian prosciutto, but now there are some available at Italian and gourmet food shops. You can't bring it in yourself, however, as it has to go through Health Canada screening.

I wasn't looking for panna when last in an Italian neighbourhood in the US (in NYC) but I'm certain they get the tetrapak panna as well.

All the prosciutto cotto we get here (Italian-style cooked ham) seems to be a local product.