ICE CREAM

This gets balanced by fresh lemon zest to brighten the flavor and make it even more addicting.

INGREDIENTS
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
¾ cup granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
5 large egg yolks
⅔ cup mascarpone cheese
zest of 1 lemon
INSTRUCTIONS
Prepare an ice bath by placing some ice and water in a large bowl and setting another large container inside. Find your fine mesh strainer. Set both aside.
Heat the cream, milk, sugar, and salt in a saucepan over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Meanwhile, place the egg yolks in a bowl; slowly whisk half of the warm cream mixture into the egg yolks. (This is called "tempering" the eggs. You want to slowly add the hot mixture to gradually raise the temperature of the egg yolks and not end up with sugary scrambled eggs.)
Return the egg-cream mixture to the rest of the cream in the saucepan. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the custard has thickened enough so that it coats the back of a spoon and holds a line drawn with your finger, about 5 minutes. (The texture of the custard is called "nappant" when it reaches this stage.) Immediately pour through the fine mesh strainer into the contained set inside the prepared ice bath; add the mascarpone cheese (the warm custard should melt the cheese) and lemon zest to the cooked custard and let cool, stirring frequently, for at least 30 minutes. (Alternatively, if you don't want to stir the custard in the ice bath, you can place plastic wrap on the surface of the custard so a skin doesn't form and place it in the refrigerator for 2 to 4 hours.)
Once the custard is cool, transfer the ice cream base to your ice cream machine and churn per the manufacturer's instructions. (You should stop once it's approximately the texture of soft serve. I let it go for about 30 minutes, which was apparently too long.) Transfer the ice cream to another container and freeze until solid, a couple of hours more.