Sometimes there's a cheese, and I won't say the "best cheese" cause what's a "best cheese", but sometimes there's a cheese, and I'm talking about Parmigiano Reggiano here. Sometimes there's a cheese, well it's the cheese for its time and place. It fits right in there. And that's Parmigiano Reggiano, all over your plate. But I've done introduced it enough.
Whether the name is familiar or not, and it should be, Parmigiano is simultaneously one of the most widely known and available and most widely copied/imitated cheeses in this fair world. The copy here being the more North-America friendly Parmesan, as you might find pre-grated and ready to dump on top of some pasta. Now I grew up on the above-linked stuff but let there be no mistake: the cheese that I piled high on my spa-geht is not Parmigiano, it's an American-made analog that uses pasteurized milk and a different recipe and is not actually very good except for, well, piled on pasta where the flavor is an additive and not a standalone.
True Parmigiano Reggiano, on the other hand, is another name/area controlled cheese from Italy, where it must be made in a tightly controlled zone and only between the April 15th and November 11th to ensure the freshest pastures. Aged at least 14 months but up to 5 years and coming in massive, authenticity-stamped 66lb (33kg) wheels, it's a cheese to celebrate.
Origin: Top Secret Locations, Italy
Milk: Cow, unpasteurized
Rennet: Animal
Affinage: 14 months and up
Notes: Made from skimmed milk, 28-32% fat content, low sodium cheese as the curd is not actually salted during the process, this is a cheese that is made very very carefully and tastes very very delicious.
Thoughts: I never really considered Parmesan or Parmigiano to be a cheese for eating any other way than how I knew it growing up, on pasta. Turns out, though, that when you get at the good stuff the flavor possibilities are mind-boggling. You see, Parmigiano Reggiano is one of those few pure flavors, one of those preciously intense flavors where the smallest sample of the good stuff is enough to bring the house down. A good balsamic vinegar is similar, or perhaps a piece of that 78% cocoa chocolate. Not surprisingly these are some of the best flavors.... ever.
Parmigiano is a dry grating cheese but will simultaneously melt on the palate nearly instantaneously, and hints of not just the salty tang that dominates commercial Parmesan but also nutty, a mild sweetness as it breaks down on the palate, and of course a creaminess that carries throughout and ties all the notes together. It is divine when paired simplistically, a little honey, or a little balsamic reduction, a little extra virgin olive oil to draw the aroma out or a thinly shaved piece with a freshly sliced crisp pear. These are some of the simple pleasures of life.
Caution
If you start referring to fairly expensive aged imported Italian cheese alongside fresh and equally decadent ingredients like Balsamic vinegar de Moderno reductions as simple pleasures you've either
1) got the priorities of a cheese addict or
2) are bourgeois swine. With really good taste.
Whether the name is familiar or not, and it should be, Parmigiano is simultaneously one of the most widely known and available and most widely copied/imitated cheeses in this fair world. The copy here being the more North-America friendly Parmesan, as you might find pre-grated and ready to dump on top of some pasta. Now I grew up on the above-linked stuff but let there be no mistake: the cheese that I piled high on my spa-geht is not Parmigiano, it's an American-made analog that uses pasteurized milk and a different recipe and is not actually very good except for, well, piled on pasta where the flavor is an additive and not a standalone.
True Parmigiano Reggiano, on the other hand, is another name/area controlled cheese from Italy, where it must be made in a tightly controlled zone and only between the April 15th and November 11th to ensure the freshest pastures. Aged at least 14 months but up to 5 years and coming in massive, authenticity-stamped 66lb (33kg) wheels, it's a cheese to celebrate.
Milk: Cow, unpasteurized
Rennet: Animal
Affinage: 14 months and up
Notes: Made from skimmed milk, 28-32% fat content, low sodium cheese as the curd is not actually salted during the process, this is a cheese that is made very very carefully and tastes very very delicious.
Thoughts: I never really considered Parmesan or Parmigiano to be a cheese for eating any other way than how I knew it growing up, on pasta. Turns out, though, that when you get at the good stuff the flavor possibilities are mind-boggling. You see, Parmigiano Reggiano is one of those few pure flavors, one of those preciously intense flavors where the smallest sample of the good stuff is enough to bring the house down. A good balsamic vinegar is similar, or perhaps a piece of that 78% cocoa chocolate. Not surprisingly these are some of the best flavors.... ever.
Parmigiano is a dry grating cheese but will simultaneously melt on the palate nearly instantaneously, and hints of not just the salty tang that dominates commercial Parmesan but also nutty, a mild sweetness as it breaks down on the palate, and of course a creaminess that carries throughout and ties all the notes together. It is divine when paired simplistically, a little honey, or a little balsamic reduction, a little extra virgin olive oil to draw the aroma out or a thinly shaved piece with a freshly sliced crisp pear. These are some of the simple pleasures of life.
Caution
If you start referring to fairly expensive aged imported Italian cheese alongside fresh and equally decadent ingredients like Balsamic vinegar de Moderno reductions as simple pleasures you've either
1) got the priorities of a cheese addict or
2) are bourgeois swine. With really good taste.
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