Pia was reading about cheeses a couple of weeks ago, and she stumbled across a blog post saying that making Mascarpone cheese at home is pretty easy. So we decided to try and make some.

You should know that while Mascarpone is abundantly available in Italy, it’s pretty expensive in Lebanon. The 200gr box costs about 17,000LBP (~12USD) in the supermarket!
So, how do you make Mascarpone? Nothing to it:

You get some heavy cream or whipping cream (liquid, not the powder stuff), bring it to a simmer (before boiling point), add a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice. After that you’ll need to drain the water out of the cheese, and you’re done!

We didn’t have a cheese cloth. I remember my mom and grandma using the white pillow casing for draining water out of Laban (Yogurt) to make Labneh. I did suggest this, but I guess we don’t have any white pillow cases. Anyway, we used coffee filters and voila: the best Mascarpone I’ve ever tasted!

Now, what to do with it?
A thousand things:

• spread it on toast with jam on top
• mix it with honey or Nutella for a delicious snack
• mix it with some Marsala wine (or rum) and use it to top fruit salads
• etc…

Now, I have a couple of favourite recipes for Mascarpone: Pizza with Mascarpone e Speck, and of course Tiramisu. We got some speck and I couldn’t wait to put it on a pizza, so we just ate them in a baguette. I guess I’ll have to post another entry about the Tiramisu in a bit. It’s still in the fridge from yesterday and I can’t wait to get a taste. Maybe I can get Pia to take some pictures before we devour it with family and friends.