Tatua Mascarpone product reviews

I never used to like any cheese other than regular blocked cheddar. Then, I discovered that cheeses of all types can be used IN food, instead of AS food... and my culinary world expanded rapidly. To say I was shocked to discover that "cheesecake" wasn't just a name, it actually contained cream cheese... well... yeah, my preconceptions of cheese fell away pretty quickly. Thus began my journey of discovery and experimentation with desserts, and my introduction to Macarpone, a cream-cheese style product with a little less sweetness, making it better for cheesecakes that you want to flavour with fruit pulps.

I found the pouch to be a brilliant size, allowing me to snip a corner off, squeeze out as much as I needed, and reseal it with a small MagicLock bar to prevent it drying out in the fridge. Unlike pottles, if this falls out, there's no lid to break open, no plastic pot to split or disintegrate, so virtually no chance of mess. The pliant bag is quite strong enough to retain integrity, while being flexible enough to absorb any impact and distribute the force with ease.

I keep my fridge quite chilly, to slow down food spoilage and speed up gelatine setting etc, so quite often the margerine has to be chipped free with a butter knife, or left on the bench for 5 minutes to soften... but the Mascarpone was still quite pliable after being taken directly from a 2 degrees Celsius environment - that was something quite impressive really! I was still able to whip the Mascarpone and get it ready to become part of the cheesecakes within moments. In fact, I had more trouble with the Whipping Cream than I did with the frigid Mascarpone!

Dinner the following night involved a different spin on "bangers and mash" whereby the sausages were done as almost a casserole style, which was topped by a potato and Mascarpone mash and a cheese & garlic sauce layered on top prior to baking. This proved to be utterly spectacular and gave the resulting dish a light, creamy yet still filling mash that had soaked up some of the flavours from the gravy and vegetables underneath it. Despite this, I could still taste the subtle hint of the Mascarpone in the mash, giving it a wonderful creamy richness not spoiled by overt sweetness.

Overall, this is a brilliant product I plan to use a lot more in future. For desserts it's simply unbeatable for cheesecakes, and to be able to use it in savoury dishes as well was just a wonderful cherry on top. I even used the last few tablespoons to make a really nice savoury dip using a dollop of Eggplant Kassoundi from Q-Gardens - NOM! Tatua Mascarpone is well worth looking for next time you go shopping!