Fresh Berries with Mascarpone Cream

Use the freshest, ripest berries available - this dish depends on quality ingredients. The mascarpone should be at room temperature for smooth mixing. Don't over-fold or the cream will deflate. A drizzle of aged balsamic over the berries adds sophisticated depth.

Mascarpone, the cream at the centre of this dessert, is one of the younger members of the ancient Italian cheese family, though even the youngest Italian cheeses have centuries of history. Britannica places its first production "about the turn of the 16th century in the region of Lombardy," the dairy-rich territory of northern Italy encompassing cities including Milan, Lodi, and Pavia. It was in this region — where cows grazed on pastures of fresh grass, herbs, and flowers — that dairymen in the 1500s and 1600s became known for the product. The name most likely derives from the local dialect: Wikipedia documents that it is "popularly held to derive from mascarpa, an unrelated milk product made from the whey of stracchino, or from mascarpia, a word in the local dialect for ricotta." Technically mascarpone is not a cheese in the formal sense — it is made without rennet and undergoes no true curd formation. Instead, cream is heated and acidified with citric or tartaric acid, then strained through cheesecloth until thickened; the result is a product with 60–75% butterfat that has more in common with very thick cream than with aged cheese. The Italian government has formally recognised it as a prodotto agroalimentare tradizionale — a traditional agricultural food product of Lombardy. Mascarpone gained global recognition as the key ingredient in tiramisu, which emerged in the Treviso area of the Veneto in the 1960s–70s. Serving it lightly sweetened alongside fresh berries is the simpler, older idea that underlies all of those preparations: the Italian tradition of setting cool, ripe seasonal fruit against rich, fresh dairy, particularly during the summer and early autumn when berries are at their peak.