There is always a wedge of Parmesan sitting in the fridge

We grate it over pasta or cut of a small piece when we want a snack. Though it is far from the only cheese we buy, it’s the one that is perennially present. Why? Because it is terribly tasty and versatile.

As a first, is never parmesan but always Parmigiano. It's taste depends from the aging…

the minimum aging is 12 months, when the Parmigiano has a delicate taste, but, according to me, is too young.

You can see, it is almost white, smooth and soft, just few grains.

Between 20 and 24 months, it has the perfect taste to be used on the pasta, both with a ragù or a simple tomato and basel sauce.

The Parmigiano becomes hard, grainy and dry, its colour change to a light yellow.

Over the 36, Parmigiano reaches the complex and full taste to be eaten alone, with a good glass of wine.

Becomes darker and harder, it normally breaks in shards, it is perfect to eat alone.

You can find aging over 46 months and it has been one of the most wonderful tasting experiences of all my life.

It is an umami source.

We use it on lotsa dishes,

1. fresh to dry pasta,
2. Inside and over baked pasta. ,
3. Inside filled pasta as in some gnocchi, rice and polenta.
4. Sometimes it’s used on pizza too, even in Neaples
5. Filled veggies,
6. Omelettes,
7. Sometimes even filled fishes
8. Raw meat salads (Carpaccio) or cured beef (Bresaola)
9. Meatballs and meat loafs
10. Raw mushroom salads
11. Savoury vegetable puddings (flans)
12. Veggies sauteed in butter, as asparagus or spinach.
13. Rinds are used to give flavour to many Minestrones..

Just to give some examples…I’m sure there are many other ways to use it.

The strangest?

You can make small cups, alike these made with paper for muffins, as an edible container for small appetizer dishes… Cestini di Parmigiano

Quite elegant , isn’t it?

Obviously not.

A sprinkle of freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano on top of tagliatelle with ragù (“alla Bolognese” or any other meat ragù, like wild boar or hare) is needed to enhance the flavor of the dish and to complete it to perfection. That’s what the tradition says.

Of course if you personally don’t like cheese, you can avoid to grate it on top.

Yes indeed!

In Italy these are called ‘fritti di latte’, milk fritter. They are a wonderful starter or nibble with a glass of wine. A friend of mine really liked them a lot and used to say that (my) fritti reminded her to the ones her mother use to make. Believe me, compliment-wise that it the highest you get in Italy.

Anyway, she asked me to prepare them for her seventieth birthday. She was going prepare all the rest, since she is a keen and good cook.

So for the occasion I started to experiment, in order to come forth with the best fritti. For two weeks I prepared fritti every day, sometimes even a couple of times a day. Different forms, different cheeses, different oil to fry them in. My poor children were my guinea pigs. Eventually we settled on one preparation and I made about eighty for the party. And fried them in my friend’s beautiful kitchen. The waiter brought them, batch by batch to the room where the guests gathered. And when I finally finished frying, joined them.

It was an awkward scene. People had trooped around the fritti and seemed to have no eyes for what my friend had prepare. She was furious. After the party she scolded me; but the following day we agreed upon this: I’d make her fritti at least once a month. Which I do since 12 years now.

Here is the recipe:

• prepare a heavy bechamel sauce, using a bit more flour than butter (40/60) and let it cook through for at least 20 minutes.
• Season with abundant nutmeg. Go easy on pepper and salt
• Switch the heat off
• Add parmesan cheese and some slices of processed cheese (80/20).
• Pour the bechamel in a large tray, evenly
• Let the bechamel cool down and than place it in the fridge for about two hours
• Cut little the bechamel in 5 by three centimeter bricks.
• Pass the bricks in plain flour and then in beaten egg (whole eggs)
• Finally pass the bricks through panko breadcrumbs
• Fry in sunflower oil. Let the oil reach 190 degrees and fry for 45 seconds.
• Serve hot

For a few calories, dried Parmesan cheese gives many foods a boost. The simplest for me is Caesar Salad. It could be any salad, but Feta ties Parmesan for goodness for low calories in salads.

Now, non-dried Parmesan, which you have to grate.. is different. It is less obvious. So use it with pasta’s that don’t have tomatoes.

Spaghetti and Lasagna love just the dried Parmesan, and then only on the top to give a crispy feeling.

BUT the best ever, the only thing, is a Parmesan layer in French Onion Soup. Done right, it can either stay on the top, or under the right conditions, make it to the bottom with a soft mushy layer of pure Parmesan flavor. This is always better… and my choice.

A super simple trick using only Parmigiano is pouring a thin layer on a no sticking pan on medium heat and wait few minutes.

After making your first Parmigiano crust you won’t ever go back to its grated sad version.

It can be eaten like a snack or added as fancy delish decoration to your dishes (salads, soups, pasta…)

Another masterpiece is risotto al parmigiano : it’s easy to make, requires only few ingredients (onion, butter, rice, Parmesan, white wine) and the result is worth trying.

Buon appetito!

If you wish i’ll be happy sharing a step by step risotto making with you directly from Northen Italy :)

P.S. if you buy Parmigiano in slices do not throw away the crusts, just grate away all superficial wax and add it to hot soup for 10 mins…

Last time i make in New Jerssy 2018 .Parmesan cheddar sauce, frequently alluded to as Alfredo sauce, is a rich and smooth sauce made with Parmesan cheddar, margarine, and weighty cream. It's a well known sauce in Italian-American food and is usually used to cover pasta dishes, especially fettuccine Alfredo. Here is a fundamental recipe for Parmesan cheddar sauce:

Fixings: 1/2 cup unsalted margarine, 1 cup weighty cream, 1 cup ground Parmesan cheddar, Salt and dark pepper to taste

Discretionary: Garlic (minced) or nutmeg for added character

Directions: Liquefy Margarine: In a pot over medium intensity, soften the spread. Assuming that you're utilizing garlic, you can sauté it momentarily in the margarine for added character.

Add Weighty Cream: Pour in the weighty cream, mixing ceaselessly. Permit the blend to warm however abstain from bubbling.

Integrate Parmesan: Progressively add the ground Parmesan cheddar to the spread and cream blend, mixing continually to guarantee a smooth surface. Keep on cooking until the cheddar is completely dissolved and the sauce thickens.

Season: Season the sauce with salt and dark pepper to taste. Whenever wanted, you can likewise add a spot of nutmeg for an inconspicuous, warm flavor.

Change Consistency: On the off chance that the sauce is excessively thick, you can change the consistency by adding a touch more cream until you arrive at your ideal thickness. In the event that it's too slim, let a tad longer.

Serve: When the sauce has arrived at the ideal consistency and preparing, eliminate it from heat. Pour it over cooked pasta, like fettuccine, and throw to equitably cover.

Embellish (Discretionary): Embellish the dish with extra ground Parmesan cheddar and hacked parsley whenever wanted.

This Parmesan cheddar sauce is debauchedly rich and liberal, going with it an exemplary decision for pasta dishes. While it's delectable with fettuccine, you can likewise utilize it with other pasta shapes or as a sauce for vegetables and barbecued chicken. Change the amounts to suit your inclinations and partake in this rich and tasty sauce.

Parmesan is classified in Europe as a functional food, meaning a food that has medicinal benefits. Its high amount of bioavailable calcium is specifically highlighted as beneficial for counteracting osteoporosis and supporting good bone health. It is also high in phosphorus, another essential mineral for bone development.

One of the biggest micronutrients in parmesan, calcium, is a major source of a number of health benefits. Parmesan is also a good way to consume protein, especially for people who don’t eat meat.

For every 100 grams of parmesan, there are approximately:

• Calories: 392
• Protein: 35.71 grams
• Fat: 25 grams
• Carbohydrates: 3.57 grams
• Fiber: 0 grams

Interestingly, parmesan is naturally lactose-free, in spite of being a dairy product. It does contain a number of micronutrients, however. Parmesan is a good source of:

Calcium

Phosphorus

Sodium

Potassium

Magnesium

Vitamin A

When you:

1. in a moment of weakness, promise to make the whole soccer team or scout troup lasagna or garlic bread and
2. you find out that means you’re feeding 50 hungry 8-year-olds and
3. it’s a week until payday and bills are due and
4. they all say they love cheese but you’re pretty sure that means they sometimes like American cheese on their burgers, not that they’re into some artisanal shizz and
5. you try to make the recipe without the cheese but the dish just doesn’t look or taste right somehow, and you know something’s missing, and that still small voice inside you is telling you “you know what you need to do to fix this.”

That’s when you utter a prayer and reach into the way way back of the pantry, hoping against hope that you had the precience to buy some of the shelf stable stuff on one of your shopping trips years ago, because if so it’s definitely still good, as good as it's ever been, and it’s 100% up to the task. Old faithful, amiright?

Also good for the Zombie Apocalypse.

Parmesan cheese can be part of a healthy diet. I would recommend Reggiano Parmesan or Grana. They are a little pricey but a little goes a long way. Both are imported from Italy and are DOC( if you choose to purchase Reggiano, be sure it is stamped. Most retailers cut the cheese in wedges so the stamp is visible.) Save the rinds because they can be added to soups and broths ( you can even make a very flavorful Parmesan broth to eat alone or or use as the liquid component to Italian sauces) to provide additional flavoring.
I would avoid using the "stuff in the can" because it comes no where near the taste of true parmesan.

I sometimes wonder why Americans don’t just eat a bowl of spaghetti sauce topped off with half a cup of parmesan. Why even bother with the spaghetti? You can’t really taste it.

I think it’s the same for salads. It’s not the greens we want, and certainly not the mushy tasteless tomatoes. Italians, and people in other countries, like the greens and want to taste them, so they put a little balsamic vinegar and olive oil on their salad. The condiments accentuate the salad flavors, not overwhelm them. Americans just use the salad as a carrier for the gloppy salad dressings we love.

Other examples abound. Why douse french fries with a heavy load of ketchup? Why cover the delicate flavor of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup? Etc.

I think maybe we just have a taste for flavors that punch us in the face.

When I last went to the grocery store, Parmigiano Reggiano was even more popular than American Parmesan, based on inventory alone.

That’s a lot of cheese, or should I say, that’s a lot of one type of cheese.

It’s an amazing cheese to cook with. It melts beautifully in to sauces. It is amazing when baked in to breads. It blends with other cheeses to produce a deeper umami flavor and more complexity. It is hard enough to grate finely, which makes for beautiful topping or garnish. It can also be dusted on top of other foods for a light coating that gets caramelized at temperature.

The 24 month aged cheese at the grocery store is not ideal for eating as it is — but longer aged, crystallized Parmigiano Reggiano should only be eaten as it is. Sadly, that’s not typically found at a grocery store.

I’ve never seen that.

You may have seen a misspelling somewhere and assumed that all 328,976,922 Americans spell it that way because you saw it once. That happens all the time on Quora. Assuming that you did see it spelled that way somewhere, there are explanations.

Many processed food companies create trademarks for their products that can be registered and legally protected from counterfeiters. A common technique for creating a unique trademark is a misspelling that retains the meaning of the word even though it is misspelled. A popular snack food in the US is cheez doodles. Spelled that way it is eligible for trademark protection. The manufacturer even went so far as to trademark the term cheez dudes, just to prevent competitors from producing a copycat product with a sound-alike name.

In the case of “Parmeghan”, it may be an American-made imitation of the cheese made in Parma, Italy. By intentionally misspelling the name, the manufacturer is not claiming that it is real Parmesan cheese, but is slyly hinting that their product has a strong resemblance to that expensive import from Italy.

There is a long history of American manufacturers using famous European names on products made in the US, such as Champagne made in California or Inglehoffer mustard made in Oregon, not in Germany as the name suggests. This is especially true with Wisconsin cheeses. Cheddar is in Britain, not Wisconsin. I have a chunk of Havarti in my kitchen right now and it’s not from Denmark.

So this “parmeghan” may be a deliberate misspelling intended to give the consumer the idea that it is a Parmesan imitator without actually claiming that it is the authentic Italian Parmesan.

Across cultures, you must be careful how proper names are spelled. How do you think “Parmesan” is spelled in Russian? Korean? Chinese? Arabic?

Get the picture?

Actually one can purchase Parmesan in chunks. When made for aging the cheese is formed into huge wheels (round blocks) and then branded with a date, lot number and the company brands. Stored for months to years the wheels are turned so the cheese dries and ages properly. The longer the aging the sharper the flavor and more expensive.

Good delicatessens or extensive deli counters may offer big slabs or chunks of this cheese. In order to eat this very hard and dry Italian cheese one must shave it in thin slices or grate it. It is low moisture, grainy and salty and toasts to crisp golden but is not a melting cheese like Mozzarella or other soft cheeses.

Edit: There are different versions of Parmesan made with cow’s milk-the premium cheese only from milk of hay-fed cattle. Goats’ milk cheese is sharper in flavor but cannot be called a true Parmesan, instead a Parmigiana-Reggiani or other brand name. Real Parmesan is made in the Parma Region of Italy and owns special historical licensing for the cheese and name.

In America the shaker style of Parmesan cheese may be grated finely and mixed with ingredients to keep the cheese from clumping. The less costly versions may have other grated cheese(s) or additives and preservatives.

This video shows how a wheel of Parmesan cheese is opened and sliced.

A direct answer would be the distinct flavor, quality and popularity of this cheese. But, other cheeses are used as seasonings and have similar qualifications.

A number of cheeses are dehydrated (to be shelf stable) for use as a topping for foods or are powdered for use as seasonings.

Parmesan is a hard cheese that may or may not need drying to be shelf stable.

Kraft offers parmesan, light parmesan (less fat), and cheddar cheeses in shelf-stable shaker containers. The parmesans are 100% cheese.

Spice companies offer powdered cheeses for use with all kinds of foods including popcorn and pasta.

Cheese Powders | Cheese Seasonings | The Spice House

Assuming you’re talking of real Parmigiano Reggiano and not of the fake US imitations, you’re given several options.

The first one is eating them, in my opinion ( but I’m not alone ) rinds are the tastier part of Parmigiano, just a little hard to bite.

The more frequent option is to add them to a slow cooking vegetable soup, they will lend flavor to the soup ( and they’ll become soft to chew ).

Then you can melt them on a grill.

Finally you can prepare a “Ragù di Croste di Parmigiano”.

Start throwing the rinds in boling water to let them soft, them grind them.

Grind onions, carrots and celery and brown them in oil in a pot together with the ground rinds.

add tomato sauce ( passata di Pomodoro ) and a bit of triple concentrated tomaotes paste, stir for a while with a wooden spoon, add hot water, lower the heat at minimum and simmer for a hour or more. Check on salt.

Serve with RIgatoni, Fusilli or Maccheroni.

Well, it depends on your parmesan cheese. If it's anything other than parmigiano reggiano, just use it to top pasta or pizza. I wouldn't even use it in pesto. If you have real parmigiano reggiano, it depends on how long it has been aged. If you can find at least 24 month aged, that's going to be the best for topping pasta with ragu or a really good pizza (not fast food pizza.) It's also great for use in a pesto. If you can get 36 month or longer aged (I currently have a wonderful 40 month aged parmigiano reggiano I'm enjoying) it's great for all of those things, but also wonderful as a snack on its own or with crackers or fresh fruit, especially grapes or apples.

As far as cheeses go, this is not a bland cheese. It is aged 12–36 months, salty, and full of umami.

Many consider it the best-tasting hard cheese in the world. Certainly the best-tasting cow’s milk hard cheese. The high quality is even more amazing when you consider the large quantities of it that Italy produces.

I myself prefer hard, aged cheeses made from sheep’s milk. In which case, the Italians have me covered as well. A lot of Pecorino Romano cheeses have a sharper, stronger flavor.

As for goat’s milk cheese, I will opt for this French Crottin de Chavignol bleuté.

The only answer I can recall is that, when you loose sense of taste and smell due to Covid, everything is the same in your dish.

But, apart from covid related issue, I see no reason in using that “dietary yeast flakes” thing.

Look at that wonderful, tasty, good smelling Parmigiano Reggiano 36 mesi used to garnish a Carbonara!

Some Italian restaurants in America use American cheese instead of Parmesan due to cost, availability, and taste preferences. Authentic Parmesan, like Parmigiano-Reggiano, is often pricier and less accessible, while American cheese is cheaper and more shelf-stable. Its creamy melt suits dishes requiring smooth textures, such as lasagna, appealing to diners accustomed to milder flavors. American cheese also simplifies kitchen operations with pre-packaged convenience, reducing prep time. Additionally, substituting local ingredients aligns with adapting traditional recipes to cater to regional palates, prioritizing familiarity over authenticity. This balance of practicality, affordability, and customer preference drives the choice, ensuring dishes remain approachable and economically viable in a competitive market.

There is a culinary term…umami…it’s something that is often described as “hauntingly savory”….you can either attempt to turn foods MORE umami, or you can just GET foods that are inherently http://umami….in (http://umami….in) Asian cuisines like Thai, Vietnamese….but not Chinese….they often use “Nuoc Mam” (fermented fish sauce)….in fact…fermented fish sauce, in the early European cuisines like Roman…made a liquid called “Garam”….which is said to be the ancestor of the Worcestershire sauce we have today…..anyway….Parm is one of those foods…as is it’s sheep milk brother Romano…..in fact, aged cheeses are some of the best examples of making something mild, like milk, INTO something umami

Do we?

There are two different types of g’s we are talking about provided we are using standard American, British, Canadian, whatever pronunciation. We have the hard G such as in words like gate and the soft G such as in words like gem.

I have personally never heard either. I’ve never heard /ˈpɑɹ.məˌɡɑn/ (par-me-gone) nor have I ever heard /ˈpɑɹ.məˌdʒɑn/ (par-me-john). Considering you spell it as “parmeghan”, I assume you’re referring to a hard g. Pronouncing it either of those ways would be seen as unorthodox.

The ways that I have heard it pronounced in American English are the following:

/ˈpɑɹ.məˌzɑːn/

/ˈpɑɹ.məˌʒɑn/

The former is pronounced like “par-me-zan” and is what is generally used in British and Australian English although it is still used in AE. The only people I know who use this pronunciation are from the North East, especially in places with accents that have some similarities with BE (such as a lack of rhotacism). This is a more accurate representation of how it is spelled.

The latter of the two is pronounced “par-me-jan”, the “j” being pronounced in a fashion that (somewhat failingly) attempts to imitate the Italian pronunciation of Parmigiano-Reggiano. While Italians pronounce it with a soft “g” as in the word giant, Americans pronounce it the same way the “g” in beige is pronounced. Not really how the Italians say it but it is closer than the “zan” pronunciation.

Ironically, pronouncing it with a soft English g, /ˈpɑɹ.məˌdʒɑn/, would be closer to the Italian pronunciation than the current mainstream pronunciations.

Throw it in your tomato sauce

Tomato sauce is tomato sauce, but what about tomato sauce stewed with a parmesan rind? Toss in the rind as your sauce is simmering (take it out at the end or leave it, your decision), and you’ll have a sauce like no other you’ve made at home.