{"id":55,"date":"2006-12-15T21:54:10","date_gmt":"2006-12-15T21:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marialiberati.com\/blog2\/2006\/12\/15\/marias-favorite-parmigiano-reggiano-recipe\/"},"modified":"2006-12-15T21:54:10","modified_gmt":"2006-12-15T21:54:10","slug":"marias-favorite-parmigiano-reggiano-recipe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/2006\/12\/15\/marias-favorite-parmigiano-reggiano-recipe\/","title":{"rendered":"Risotto Parmigiana | Interesting Parmigiano Reggiano Facts and Maria's Favorite Recipe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Probably the most famous of all Italian cheeses is Parmigiano reggiano<\/a>, a hard, granular cheese native to the Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modina, Bologna, and Mantua provinces. Parmigiano reggiano is made from raw cow\ufffds milk \ufffd whole milk and skim milk \ufffd which is then pumped into copper-lined vats. After the milk is heated and cooled producing the whey, The cheese is put into a stainless steel round form that is pulled tight with a spring powered buckle so the cheese retains it wheel shape. After a few days, the cheese is soaked in a brine bath for 20 days to absorb the salt. This salt is the only additive throughout the entire process.<\/span>
\nAfter 12 months, the cheese is tested by a master grader whose only tools are a hammer and sound. By lightly tapping the wheel at various points, the master is able to assess any undesirable cracks or malformations and can thus mark the cheese as a lower-grade Parmigiano reggiano cheese. Ideally, the cheese is aged for 24-months; this produces the highest quality \ufffd and most expensive \ufffd Parmigiano. But a good cheese is aged 18 to 24 months.<\/span>
\n?
\nSome other interesting facts:<\/span>
\n— In olden days, because of the large amount of high quality milk used to produce the cheese, Parmigiano reggiano was considered to be a product of quality and luxury and prestige. Wheels of this cheese were used as a gift to give royalty that passed through their region as a specialty item.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n— In 1543 a writer noted during a casual dinner with friends that the meal did not consist of any meat at all. There were six plates of Parmigiano cheese and fresh fruit. The cheese was the main course!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n— Thomas Jefferson<\/a> loved Italy and its food so much that he often had wheels of this cheese shipped to him at his Virginia estate, Monticello<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n— The Maramotti<\/a> family, who own the Italian fashion chain MaxMara<\/a>, is the largest stockholder in a bank in Reggio-Emilia. They still hold about 300,000 wheels of Parmigiano reggiano cheese in their vaults!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nOne of my favorite Parmigiano reggiano recipes from my book, The Basic Art of Italian Cooking <\/em>is Risotto Parmigiana (pg. 31).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nRisotto Parmigiana<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n14 ozs. (400 grams) carnaroli or Arborio rice
\n<\/span>1 small onion finely chopped<\/span>
\n4 ozs. (approx. 115 grams) grated Parmigiano reggiano cheese<\/span>
\n1 Tbsp. (approx. 15 grams) butter<\/span>
\n4 Tbsp. (approx. 59 mL) extra-virgin olive oil<\/span>
\n1 cup (approx. 235 mL) chicken or vegetable broth<\/span>
\n1 glass of dry white wine<\/span>
\nSalt to taste<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nIn a large frying pan, combine the EVOO and broth. Saut\ufffd the onion in this mixture. When the onion is golden, add the rice and allow the rice to absorb the color. ? Add the white wine to the broth slowly. Stir, all the while keeping the stove on low heat. Cook for about 15 minutes, or until the rice is al dente (soft). Add the rest of the butter and half of the grated cheese and stir gently.<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nServe individually and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Serve hot.<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nKeep checking back on my website for weekly updates to my blog. And next week I’ll send out my Christmas newsletter! Feel free to comment or drop me a line at Maria@MariaLiberati.com<\/a>. Ciao!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Probably the most famous of all Italian cheeses is Parmigiano reggiano, a hard, granular cheese native to the Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modina, Bologna, and Mantua provinces. Parmigiano reggiano is made…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,40,11,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-facts","category-history-of-foods","category-recipes","category-risotto"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}