Mascarpone

Strictly speaking, mascarpone is not a cheese. It contains no starter or rennet, which means that the bacterial, enzymatic processes that drive the creation of cheese never took place.

Technically, one might say it’s really just a fancy kind of cream. Then again, that’s like arguing that Secretariat was just another horse.

Mascarpone, which might be named from the Italian term for being “really dressed-up,” is soft and sweet, a cream cheese that seems almost closer to gelato than Philly brand.

To make it, they take the cream of cow’s milk, mix it with citric acid (lemon juice), and hang it in cheesecloth to drain the liquid. The concentration of lactose in the solidified cream is what makes it so sweet; most of the salts are in the liquid portion that drips off during production.

For people used to closing their meals with a sweet, Mascarpone is the quintessential dessert cheese. One way to serve it is sprinkled with sugar, chocolate, or ground espresso beans. For grown-ups, dredge it in grappa or a liquer.

More often, however, it’s used in cooking confections, rather than on its own. It is a basic element of Tiramisu, 20th century Venice’s contribution to after-dinner eating. Another confectionary delicacy is torta di Mascarpone, a wondrous cheesecake served all over northern Italy.

These days, Mascarpone tends to be mass-produced by dairy producers, although handmade varieties aren’t so hard to find (for one thing, it’s not so difficult to make).