Jamie Oliver has long prided himself on elevating home cooking, insisting that every household can ditch the microwave meals to cook high-class cuisine. His latest tip maintains this outlook and offers a valuable new use for a commonly discarded item.
Rind time
Parmesan is a staple of countless dishes; however, like many cheeses, it is expensive. Although it will last you a while, dishes such as carbonara or alfredo come at a price.
Why do we throw out the rind so readily? Parmesan rind is obviously tougher than the rest of the cheese and tends to have a saltier, even umami, flavour to it, but this doesn’t mean it should be tossed out. This is like cutting the crusts off every slice of bread.
Every rind you toss out could have been money put towards that kitchen refurb you have been looking for, perhaps with the help of a kitchen refurb specialist, but we let the texture put us off. Also, the rind doesn’t necessarily stay hard. If you cook it in a dish, it will soften into a flavoursome sauce for a dish such as mac and cheese or soup.
Seasoning
That salty, umami flavour we mentioned earlier can be a great alternative – or strengthener – for flavouring.
Returning to the soup example, think of how much flavour you can add by simply dropping the parmesan rind in the bowl rather than the bin.
This practice obviously isn’t anything new, with Italians insisting that the parmesan rind should never go to waste; instead, it should be used to flavour countless other dishes. Think of how many soups or pasta dishes you could flavour with just one parmesan rind. Alternatively, if you are feeling adventurous, you can chop up the parmesan rind and cook it; for example, you can fry a crispy selection of nibbles or melt it down.
This is just one common source of food wastage in the household, so try to think of other things you throw out that could spice up your dishes.