Parmesan Info

Known as Parmigiano in Italy the cheese is actually a grana a hard and grainy pressed cheese made from partially skimmed cows milk. Parmigiano Reggiano from Emilia is regarded as the best. The cheeses are shaped like huge wheels and can be aged for over two years. A younger Parmesan a nuovo is good as a dessert cheese with fruit or flaked or slivered on top of salads; an older Parmesan which is harder a vecchio or a stravecchio is grated on to soups pasta etc.

RouxThere are two types single and curly. Single parsley may be used in sprigs or snipped. Curly parsley must be chopped but it is left whole for frying as a garnish.

This ewes milk cheese is made all over Italy and can be sofl when young. hard when pressed and matured. Pecorino toscano although not well known is an essential ingredient in Tuscan cooking; there the cheeses are small and round made with differing flayoured milk depending on where the sheep have been grazing mountain hill or seaside and the varying herbs they have ingested. Some of these local Pecorinos are eaten fresh some are kept for about six months. We use these latter cheeses for grating over pasta and adding to pesto.

Pecorino siciliano sometimes has peppercorns added to it and it is delicious eaten fresh. The aged hard version is also delicious with olives and olive oil from the same region.

Sunday timesParmesan is a collective term used to describe cheeses made in the style of parmigiano. Grana (meaning "hard cheese") is the generic name augmented by a location for instance Lodigani or Piacentino.

The ideal age for Parmigiano is between 20 and 24 months. The cheese will have the best balance of fruity flavour and texture. Beyond two years although the flavour intensifies the cheese itself becomes increasingly hard.