Mascarpone

Italian food · dairy · desserts

Italian cream treasure. Mascarpone comes from Italy and is made by heating cream and adding acid to make it thick and fluffy, but it skips the step that makes regular cheese (called curdling with rennet). That's why it's technically a cream, not a true cheese.

Impossibly soft texture. Unlike hard cheeses you can slice, mascarpone is so smooth and spreadable that it feels like velvet on your tongue. You can dollop it, spread it, or mix it into other foods.

Dessert superstar. Mascarpone is famous for being the main ingredient in tiramisu, the Italian dessert made with coffee and cocoa powder. It's also delicious in cheesecakes, with fresh fruit, or swirled into chocolate.

Protected recipe. Mascarpone is so important to Italian food culture that it's officially recognized as a tradizionale, which means it's a protected traditional food that must be made a certain way to earn that name.

Made from pure cream. The best mascarpone starts with high quality cream (the rich part of milk), so it tastes incredibly creamy and luxurious without any weird additives.