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Mascarpone cheese works a treat with lasagne |
Mascarpone unmasked
This underused cheese is an excellent ingredient for adding an Italian touch to a number of dishes, says Clare Latimer
MASCARPONE is an Italian cheese and very underused in my view.
It has a very rich and creamy taste and is perfect for adding to sauces or for complementing a pudding. Even spread on a hot muffin with runny heather honey it is pretty near perfection. It came to fame as the main ingredient of tiramisu, but has much wider uses.
Tomato and mascarpone lasagne
Not only a great vegetarian dish, but also relatively cheap to produce and very popular. Serve with a green leaf salad.
Ingredients
Serves 4
2 onions, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 tbsp olive oil
8 large ripe tomatoes,
3 small courgettes, topped, cut up and blanched
1 handful fresh basil,
torn up
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pack dried lasagne
250g mascarpone
1 ball mozzarella, cut up.
Method
Preheat the oven to 190C/ 375F / gas 5. Put the onion, garlic and olive oil in a frying pan and cook gently for about three minutes or until the onion is soft. Peel the tomatoes by spearing each one with a knife and then putting them into a saucepan of boiling water. After one minute, or when the speared skin opens, drain and run under cold water. Peel with your hands and then chop the tomatoes up. Add the onion mixture, courgettes, the fresh basil then season with salt and pepper.
Pour a layer of the vegetable sauce into a large baking dish and cover with a layer of lasagne sheets. Then spread over some of the mascarpone and dot over some mozzarella pieces. Repeat this three times, ending with a layer of the tomato sauce and topping this with the remaining cheeses. Grind over some black pepper and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes or until the lasagne sheets are soft and the top is golden brown and bubbling. Serve hot.
Mascarpone lemon roulade
This is great for a dinner party or just a lovely pudding for home! You can freeze the “sponge” part and then just roll in the filling at the last moment which can be very useful. One of the main things about roulades is that they have no flour – if they are proper – so very good for the non-wheat eaters. If you do not use all the lemon curd it can be kept in the fridge in an air-tight jar and spooned on hot toast or served with plain yoghurt.
Ingredients
Serves 6
125g cream cheese
140g caster sugar
4 eggs, separated
2 lemons
1 tub mascarpone cheese
1 tbsp crème fraîche or milk
1 desp caster sugar
1 desp icing sugar
1 punnet fresh raspberries
1 jar good quality lemon curd
Garnish: Fresh mint leaves
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F / gas 4.
To make the roulade “sponge” part put the cream cheese, caster sugar, juice of half lemon and finely grated rind of two lemons and the egg yolks into a bowl and beat hard until very thick and fluffy. Beat the egg whites until stiff and then fold carefully into the lemon mixture. Pour into a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper 40cm x 25cm approx. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the mixture is gently firm but not browning. Remove and leave to cool.
To serve, beat the mascarpone in a bowl with the crème fraîche and extra caster sugar until smooth.
Turn out the roulade quickly and without hesitation onto a new piece of greaseproof paper dusted with the icing sugar, and peel off the sheet it was cooked on. Gently spread the mascarpone mixture all over right to the edges and then a layer of the lemon curd. Finally, evenly place the whole raspberries over the top. Place it lengthways in front of you and taking the nearest edge to you start rolling it up like a Swiss roll, removing the paper as you go.
When completely rolled up, lift onto a serving dish, dust with icing sugar and garnish with the fresh mint leaves. |
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