Off the Shelf
Mascarpone becomes easier to find
Advertiser Staff
Mascarpone (mas-kar-poh-nay) cheese, once difficult to get in this country outside of Italian neighborhoods or high-end specialty stores, is readily available in many supermarket delis, including at Safeway stores.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
This exceedingly rich cheese originally came from the Lombardy region of Italy. The texture can be that of stiff American-style cream cheese or as soft as room-temperature butter, depending on the manufacturer and the cheesemaking process. The flavor of this triple-thick cow's milk cheese is always delicate, with a very light, rich tang. It's most often used in with fruit, in desserts or as a fresh spread for sliced fruit; a classic combination is with ripe figs.
The cream-rich cheese works nicely in desserts, as a spread or in pasta dishes.
However, like cream cheese, mascarpone also lends itself to being blended with savory/salty ingredients, such as olives, anchovies or even other cheeses, as a spread or as a stuffing for a baked tart or atop a calzone-type bread.
— Source: "Food Lover's Companion" by Sharon Tyler Herbst (Barron's, 1990)
