Parmigiano-Reggiano: Cheese of All Cheeses
What better way to brush up with your cheese ABCs than with everyone’s favorite parmesan?
You can hardly flip through a page in an Italian cookbook without coming across a mention or two of Parmigiano-Reggiano, which many of us know as just parmesan.
Most of these recipes, as can be expected from Italian cookery, are resourcefully modest in a way that only food all’Italiana can be: They feature a handful of ingredients—all fresh, local, and in-season — and meld them together skillfully, bringing out the aromas and letting the flavors shine through.
Take the 1886 issue of The Family Advisor, a 19th-century periodical in Bergamo — a cobblestone-street, red-tile-roof city with Venetian walls all around just an hour’s drive northeast of Milan — which gives us, from the annals of time past, a recipe for creamy cooked spinach with eggs and parmesan:
“Take as much spinach as you want to, and briefly boil it. Squeeze it from the water and toss it in a hot pan with melted butter and salt. Whisk fresh eggs in a cup with Parmigiano cheese and some marjoram. When the spinach is cooked, pour the mixture in and stir, taking care not to stiffen the eggs.”
