Heavenly Mascarpone Cheese!

Maybe you have heard the name mascarpone cheese before, but didn’t really know what it was.  Pronounced “mas-kar-POHN” or “mas-kahr-POH-nay” it is a very rich Italian cow’s milk cheese.  Mascarpone has a higher butter fat content than the “food police” would recommend (60-75%).  Cows are fed a special diet of clean grasses with herbs and flowers which contribute to the fresh taste of the cheese.  It can be described as ivory in color, rich, creamy, buttery, heavenly, and very spreadable.  In fact, although very rich, its flavor is mild enough to blend with many other flavors successfully.

Unlike most cheeses, mascarpone is not an aged product.  It is very perishable after it is processed, and should be consumed immediately.  (No letting this one sit in the fridge for weeks!)

Mascarpone cheese used to be hard to find.  Because of the popularity of the Italian dessert “tiramisu” it caught on fast.  People started demanding their grocers to carry it.  You can now find it in most large chain grocery stores, specialty food stores and delicatessens in the refrigerated section.  It usually comes in an 8oz. tub and can be a bit pricey.  I have found the cheapest price to be at Trader Joe’s.  Just do some scouting around to find the best price in your area.

We can’t discuss mascarpone cheese without bringing up tiramisu.  If you have never tried this delicious dessert, you are definitely missing out.  Tiramisu is an Italian layered dessert with espresso/liqueur soaked ladyfingers, sweetened mascarpone cheese and shaved chocolate.  There are many versions of this dessert all over the internet.  Some of them seem to stray a little too far for me to still call it tiramisu, but they still sound good enough to try.

What can you do if mascarpone is not in your budget?  Some people have tried substituting it with whipped ricotta or cottage cheese.  My experience with these cheeses leads me to think that the texture would suffer a bit.  You most certainly would be trading in the buttery smoothness for a slightly gritty one.  The “Cooks Thesaurus” has come up with some better substitutions for mascarpone cheese:

~ You can blend 8oz. of softened cream cheese with ¼ cup of whipping cream.

~ You can blend 8oz. of softened cream cheese with 1 Tablespoon of cream, milk or butter.

~ You can blend 6oz. of softened cream cheese with ¼ cup of butter and ¼ cup of cream.

If I was going to try a substitution, I would go with the last one.  Of course, by the time you buy the cream cheese, butter and cream, you could have probably purchased one tub of the mascarpone.  Just saying……

Just to convince you that mascarpone is not just for tiramisu alone, I searched the internet and saw lots of other recipes putting it to use like “chocolate mascarpone brownies, mascarpone gelato, lemon mascarpone blondies, nutella and mascarpone cream chocolate tarts, raspberry mascarpone pizza, and mascarpone stuffed french toast.  I have personally used it to make a decadent lemon mascarpone frosting.  If this list doesn’t convince you to try it, then I must tell you that most Italians will say that mascarpone needs little embellishment other than fresh fruit macerated in balsamic vinegar.

Arrivederci!

Pam