If you have never tried it, Mascarpone cheese on pizza is an experience. Mascarpone is a pale, smooth, and spreadable fresh cream cheese that has a creamy, milky taste and a buttery texture. This works well with bolder more savoury toppings, to make a great savoury pizza.
In fact, being the main ingredient in Tiramisu, you could even make dessert pizzas with this delicious cheese.
What is Mascarpone Cheese?
Mascarpone is an ivory-colored, smooth, and quickly spreadable fresh cream cheese with a milky flavor and slight sweetness. It has a tangier taste than American cream cheese. It can also be used interchangeably, although its flavor and texture will be slightly different.
Actually, the two types of cheese are often used together in particular recipes, such as pastas and pizza.
Mascarpone cheese is made from high-fat dairy products (up to 75 percent butterfat) and is commonly sold for a price that is higher than regular cream cheese. Unlike some other cheeses, which use animal rennet, Mascarpone cheese is very much vegetarian.
Its high butterfat content gives it a luxurious buttery texture. It can be found in several large grocery stores or cheese shops, in both the dairy or cheese section.
Mascarpone Cheese on pizza: a delicious treat
Mascarpone cheese on pizza gives it a milky, slightly sweet flavour. In addition to its buttery texture, high butterfat content (up to 75%) contributes to its rich, buttery quality.
Mascarpone cheese is often compared with clotted creams, cream cheese, ricotta cheese and crème fraiche. Yet, Mascarpone cheese is less tangy and more sweet than those substitutes.
It’s a flavour packed change to the usual pizza cheese options.
Why Mascarpone Cheese on pizza just works
Pizza is one of world’s most popular foods, and there’s plenty of room for creativity. From the very first appearance of pineapple, exploration has been a part of the pizza journey. Pizza is one of those foods that never gets dull. From the cheese to the crust, there’s a lot of choice.
On way to look at it, is that pizza bases are blank canvases that diners may paint with an endless array of toppings.
Cheese can be as diverse as you desire, and Mascarpone cheese on pizza has gained more fans in recent years, because it is smoother and sweeter than traditional Mozzarella, and it adds a unique dimension to pizza.
Is Mascarpone Cheese good for your health?
Mascarpone cheese may well be healthy in some aspects, however it has a high fat content, which means you should only eat it in moderation.
Mascarpone cheese is a great source of nutrients found in milk naturally, such as calcium. It also contains plenty of other essential nutrients such as vitamin A, vitamin B12, phosphorous, riboflavin and zinc.
What toppings pair well with Mascarpone Cheese?
When we talk about Mascarpone cheese on pizza, it can be used as a replacement white sauce, or as small balls of cheese alongside other toppings.
Toppings that Mascarpone cheese would work well with, include prawns (as the featured image of this article shows), spinach, garlic, mushrooms, honey, cauliflower, beef, chicken and potato.
In Conclusion
As we have learnt above, Mascarpone cheese on pizza is a fantastic experience, and is something you should try in future homemade pizza adventures, as a way to mix up your usual ingredients.
While Mozzarella cheese is always the traditional choice, it is tasty and ever reliable, however Mascarpone has started to become popular among those who seek something different. It has gained more fans because of its sweet, new flavour.
You should give Mascarpone a go, I’m positive you’ll enjoy the experience.
Featured image: Source
