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But what stopped me cold was a photograph: panna cotta.

It was, of all things, a lettuce panna cotta.

“The herbaceousness of butter lettuce lends itself perfectly to panna cotta. There is a gentle bitterness that cottons to the fat in the cream here. Then come the strawberries and their bright sweetness. A finish of olive oil and this truly wows. Use the outer leaves for this recipe. They are often larger, and they are not as pretty on salads. The inner leaves are a bit more gentle and often don’t have quite the flavor.”

One slow weekend, deep into my lettuce spiral, I made the panna cotta.

Even panna cotta has more in common with a Jell-O salad than most food critics would care to admit.