What do I do with this mascarpone?

August 27, 2015 10:20 AM

It... might have so happened that I went to the store more drunk than is wise. I wanted to make pasta, and so I went to get any kind of melty-whatchacallem cheese stuff for it (sorry, I'm not a native speaker). And I bought quite a bit of it, steeply discounted and all! And now I have a lot of mascarpone.

So the question is, what are my options of making non-sweet, non-dessert things out of it? There are of course plenty of pasta recipies with mascarpone out there, usually requiring a spoonful of it, but maybe you good mefi people have some personal ideas and happenstances and experiences with it? What shall I do?

Relevant notes: 1) I didn't know what mascarpone is until today. 2) I have half a kilo of it.

PS. AskMe suggests that my question is related to a previous one, "Help me hack fear of failure." AskMe is correct as always.

posted by Pyrogenesis to Food & Drink (19 answers total)

Make a couple of batches of different pasta sauce and freeze in portion sized containers? You can freeze mascarpone as it comes but it may split on defrosting and you'd have to whisk it back together or even strain if it won't re-emulsify.
posted by koahiatamadl at 10:26 AM on August 27, 2015

I had never bought mascarpone until this past weekend when visiting parents wanted to make breakfast. Pita breakfast that involves using 6oz of mascarpone. We subbed corn tortillas for the pita, because I found the mascarpone, but no pita bread at my local shop. I'm not sure what to do with the rest of the container, so I will watch this thread myself for ideas.
posted by BooneTheCowboyToy at 10:27 AM on August 27, 2015

Best answer: You don't have to go sweet. Mascarpone is rich and milky and flavor-neutral. Add a dollop to tomato sauce to make tomato cream sauce. Mix it into baked potato flesh instead of sour cream. Thin it with milk (or, possibly, white wine) as the base for an alfredo. Add it to macaroni and cheese in lieu of some of the sauce mornay. Saute spinach and garlic, fold in marscapone, and make florentine anything. Spread it on bagels or toasts, along with lox and capers and onions. Mix it with diced shallots and fresh savory herbs and use it as a sandwich spread. Use it instead of sour cream for artichoke dip.
posted by gauche at 10:29 AM on August 27, 2015 [6 favorites]

It is really good with cinnamon - so play around with other spices like ginger, cumin and paprika.
posted by soelo at 10:44 AM on August 27, 2015

Make your own gnocchi? Several recipes out there, though I haven't tried any of them; here's one example.
posted by ferret branca at 10:54 AM on August 27, 2015

I use dollops of it on pizzas, a la mozzarella on a margherita.
posted by Kreiger at 10:57 AM on August 27, 2015

Best answer: One of my favorite things to do with mascarpone is to put a dollop of it on some good crackers then top it with a bit of (homemade) jam/jelly then top that with a slice of jalapeno or other spicy pepper. The combination of flavors is amazing. I recently made a strawberry/mango/jalapeno jam that I'd use like this that was so delicious I pretty much OD'd on the stuff. I know you said no sweet stuff but this isn't really a dessert, more like an appetizer (or dinner...)
posted by TurquoiseZebra at 11:28 AM on August 27, 2015 [2 favorites]

One thing to keep in mind is that even though we tend to call it "mascarpone cheese" its just barely a cheese at all, much closer to an english clotted cream. Savory-wise use it in place of butter or cream to thicken and enrich all sorts of sauces and risottos.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 11:51 AM on August 27, 2015

Stuffed pasta, like cannelloni or stuffed shells. Recipes w/mascarpone abound, or it could substitute for ricotta.
posted by magicbus at 11:59 AM on August 27, 2015

Wine Restaurant near me specializes in bruschetta (they call anything served on toasted slice of french bread bruschetta). One of the most popular ones is Mascarpone, Figs (dried, sliced) (mission figs i think, but i think calimyrna would be good too), and Prosciutto. Obviously the figs add sweetness but its also got the saltiness of the Prosciutto, it is definitely not a desert. If you can toast slices of baggette, or whatever bread you want to use, then it is just a matter of cutting up dried figs and assembling. Dried figs and prosciutto are not cheap but you need very little of each. Tons of recipes/images came up if you google: mascarpone fig prosciutto bruschetta

However I doubt you would put a big dent in the a half kilo of mascapone with this unless you were feeding a party.
posted by Ommcc at 12:44 PM on August 27, 2015

Pinwheel sandwiches are made by spreading cream cheese on a tortilla and adding your favorite sandwich stuff. You can totally use mascarpone in place of cream cheese. Google has a million recipes, all with different flavor palettes.
posted by CathyG at 1:42 PM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

I love grilling peaches and then topping them with a heaping tablespoon of mascarpone. Just brush a grill with olive oil, cut peaches in half and cook cut side down until they soften a little then grilled cut side up for just a minute. Serve hot with cold cheese. Works well as dessert or appetizer.
posted by Saminal at 2:48 PM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

Baked salmon stuffed with mascarpone spinach -- but making bread crumbs is tedious if you have panko bread crumbs which work even better
posted by foxfirefey at 4:53 PM on August 27, 2015

Best answer: Make a sliced, baked potato casserole with marscapone, peper, garlic, seasoned salt. Bake it, freeze it for later reheating. Cut it in 5x5 squares and bag it individually. A pound of the stuff should be spread out over a couple of weeks, for one person.

Marscapone, fresh dill, Armenian cucumber salad. Dill is on right now, fresh dill, fine chopped onions with white balsamic vinegar, reduced and chilled either in a pan or the microwave, sliced Armenian cucumbers in the salad, maybe a caper or so.
posted by Oyéah at 5:05 PM on August 27, 2015

Lots of good suggestions, here's another: a savory cheesecake would use up quite a bit of it.
posted by box at 7:06 PM on August 27, 2015

Finely grind some basil with pine nuts or walnuts and some olive oil. Add marscapone and voila: pesto cream sauce!
posted by treadstone11 at 9:12 PM on August 27, 2015

Response by poster: Thanks eveyone! I've started to experiment with different things, and it's indeed not as bad (meaning sweet) as I thought it would be. It does work well with a lot of different things.

I'll go shopping when more sober next time, promise!
posted by Pyrogenesis at 4:07 AM on August 28, 2015

Nthing TurquoiseZebra - our local Trader Joe's served Marcapone with a dab of lemon curd on top of meyer lemon thins as a sample and we immediately brought it all home. (after paying for it)

It was sweet, but it's not SWEET, and it's a lovely snack.
posted by getawaysticks at 5:15 AM on August 28, 2015

Stuff zucchini blossoms with it.

Or tomatoes or peppers or other stuffable veg.
posted by slateyness at 12:54 PM on August 28, 2015