In Episode 007 we are making Mascarpone Pasta for dinner. Susie shares this easy pasta recipe that is ready in just 15 minutes, from start to finish! Mascarpone cheese is flavored with a little white wine, garlic, lemon and parmesan and then mixed with the hot penne pasta. It is like an elevated alfredo!
Transcript
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Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich.
Susie Weinrich: Hello. Hello. Welcome back to Mom’s Dinner. Nope. This is not Mom’s Dinner. Mom’s Dinner is actually my food blog. This is Let’s Make Dinner, my podcast. Hello. Welcome. Welcome in everybody.
Today I have an awesome pasta recipe for you that you can get on the table in about 15 minutes. It comes together so incredibly quickly, but it has nice layers of flavor so the adults will love it. But if you tell the kids they’re just eating Alfredo, they’re going to love it too.
Tips and Tricks: We’re talking about Mascarpone Pasta. If you have not used mascarpone cheese, sometimes I feel like cheese is a little bit of a misnomer here because it isn’t like a block of cheese. It’s more like a cross between butter and cream cheese. It has the texture of cream cheese, but it definitely tastes like really creamy butter. You should be able to find mascarpone cheese in just about any grocery store, probably near the dairy in the refrigerated section.
Some other ingredients that you want to make sure that you have on hand to make this is obviously pasta, garlic, lemon, Parmesan cheese, and then you need white wine. If you don’t drink wine and you normally don’t have wine in your house and you maybe prefer not to use it, you could definitely sub in chicken broth. It just won’t have that extra layer of flavor.
Now, if you want to use wine, but you’re not a huge white wine drinker, like me, I love my red wine. I don’t drink a ton of white wine. But what I like to do is buy the, let’s see, I’m going to try and explain this to you. It’s a carton of white wine, not the big box of white wine. It’s more of just like a two-serving little carton. You can buy that, pour out what you want to use for this recipe, then flip the top up so you create a little bit more space in that carton, and you can freeze white wine for up to six months. Now, obviously, you don’t want to drink that white wine after you freeze it. But it’s perfect to use in any recipes that call for white wine. So, great kitchen tip. Use it, abuse it. We’re not abusing. Use it and love it.
Mascarpone Pasta Recipe: Let’s get on to making this recipe. You’re going to want to make the pasta, so boil the pasta while you’re making the sauce, and that way your dinner will be done in 15 minutes. So you’re going to take a large skillet and place it over medium heat. Add a quarter cup of white wine, two minced garlic cloves, and the zest of a whole lemon. Let that simmer together for about two to three minutes. Then stir in four ounces of mascarpone cheese and keep stirring it so that it melts down into the wine and the lemon juice. You should see me in here. I’m literally stirring while I’m talking. I gotta do the action so I know where I’m at. Okay. After that melts down into the wine, you’re going to remove the pan from the heat and sprinkle in half a cup of grated Parmesan cheese. Keep stirring so that melts down into the sauce, and then stir in a quarter teaspoon of kosher salt and a quarter teaspoon of black pepper. If you don’t like black pepper, go ahead and skip that.
Now, here’s one thing that you’re going to want to remember to do, and this is a great kitchen tip. Anytime you have a recipe that calls for reserved starchy pasta cooking water, how many times have you drained the pasta and then been like, oh hell, I forgot to save the pasta water? I’ve definitely done it. Until I found this tip. When you get your colandar out and you pop it in the sink, also get out a glass measuring cup or just one of your measuring cups and put it in the colandar. That way when you go to actually pour the pasta into the colander one, you’re going to stop and be like, oh yeah, I need to reserve some water. Let me do that. Or two, you’re going to pour it in there. It’s going to capture some of the water, and even if you forgot it, now you have it.
Take that cooked pasta and toss it right into that mascarpone sauce and just stir it around so it coats all of the pasta. It will be a little thick, and this is where that reserved pasta water comes in. You can pour in a little bit at a time until you get the consistency that you want, and it coats the pasta just how you like.
That’s it. Your dinner is done. Of course, give it a little taste. See if you want a little bit more salt or pepper, but otherwise, it’s ready to serve.
I will say one thing about this recipe. It calls for 12 ounces of cooked pasta, which in one house may serve one person. In another house, it may serve four. If you have a house with some really hungry people, you may want to double this recipe.
This pasta would also be excellent with a little bit of grilled chicken added on top, or if you want to toss in some mushrooms or asparagus, that would be delicious as well.
As far as side dishes go, I recommend serving this just like you would any other pasta dinner. Add a little side salad and maybe some garlic bread.
That does it for today’s episode of Let’s Make Dinner. As always, I will link the full printable recipes of any recipe that I talked about in this episode.
If you are enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love it if you would subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player. That way, all of our future episodes will show up right in your podcast feed and be easy to find.
Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little easier.
Recipe Tips
- To reserve the pasta water place a measuring cup in the bottom of your strainer/colander and you will never forget it again!
- You can FREEZE YOUR LEFTOVER WHITE WINE! I like to buy it in the aseptic cartons and then pop the whole thing in the freezer. Don’t drink the frozen white wine, but it is perfect to cook with for about 6 months to a year.
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