Mascarpone ice cream

by: Cawfee Lady

Share:


I think people are a bit confused by mascarpone and mozzarella — but before you say, "Well, you couldn't make an ice cream with mozzarella", we did: with olive oil and Parmesan too, and it was fantastic, but so is this ice cream made with mascarpone, our famous gorgeously creamy "cheese" from Lombardia, which is used in desserts and savory dishes. In fact, like ricotta, it isn't a true cheese at all but is made in a similar way to yogurt, with cream from cows fed on a special diet of grasses, herbs and flowers. The cream is heated, then citric, tartaric or acetic acid is added and it is allowed to rest and separate, before being drained through cloth. Some say the name comes from the word mascarpa, which means the whey of an aged cheese (stracchino); or perhaps from mascarpia, which is the local dialect word for "ricotta", its close relation. Others say that, since the Spanish ruled in Lombardia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the name comes from the Spanish expression "mas que bueno" which means "more than good".