OPINION | FRONT BURNER: Mascarpone, lemon and hazelnuts flavor this quick and easy pasta dish

I had a little mascarpone leftover from recent desserts (Limoncello Mascarpone Cream and Peach Tiramisu) that I didn't want to go to waste but also didn't want to use in yet another dessert.

Mascarpone is essentially Italian cream cheese, albeit richer, nuttier and butterier. In fact, it is buttery enough that you can sometimes use it in place of butter. That's because this specialty from Lombardy is, like butter, made with heavy cream.

And some of my favorite pasta sauces are simple mixtures of butter or cream and lemon, black pepper and/or parmesan, so a pasta dish seemed like a natural way to use up the bit of mascarpone I had.

After comparing several recipes online and in various cookbooks, I threw together this one, which is an amalgamation.