Mascarpone
Beginner🧀 Photo slot
🧀 Photo slot
The cream layer in tiramisu — barely any acidity, and very rich.
TasteSo mild it reads as almost sweet. Nothing is cultured, so there's none of cream cheese's tang — which is exactly why it doesn't crowd out the other flavors in a dessert.
TextureLike very thick whipped cream — a spoonful holds its shape. There's so much fat that beating it hard or long will split it into something buttery, so handle it gently.
Similar cheeses
How it differsPeople swap it for cream cheese, but the result changes. Mascarpone skips fermentation entirely, so there is no tang; cream cheese is soured by lactic cultures. That neutrality is why it disappears behind the coffee and cocoa in tiramisu. Substitute cream cheese and the dessert turns sour; substitute ricotta and it goes grainy and loose.
Pairing
🍷 WineSweet dessert wine
🥂 DrinkEspresso
🍽️ FoodCocoa, strawberries, savoiardi
How to enjoy
It is the cream in tiramisu. Let it warm slightly and fold it in by hand rather than beating it cold, and keep the whisk away. A spoonful in a pasta sauce goes richer than double cream.
Storage
Sealed in the fridge; use within three or four days of opening. Freezing splits the water from the fat for good.
⏳ AgingNone
Good to know
It's cream heated and set with an acid — tartaric or citric — with no culture and no rennet, which makes it closer to a cream product than a cheese proper. At over 40% milkfat it is among the richest things in the case, and at a pinch you can fake it with cream cheese loosened with double cream and sour cream.