If you’re anything like me, you despise that giant plastic container of powdered cheese product that sits in the back of your fridge for those emergencies where you don’t have any real cheese. What is it anyway? It doesn’t taste or look like real cheese. Let’s have a look at the ingredients of one of the more popular brands:
Parmesan Cheese (Pasteurized Part-Skim Milk, Salt, Less Than 2% of Enzymes, Cheese Culture, Cellulose Powder to Prevent Caking, Potassium Sorbate to Protect Flavor).
Starts off OK, says it’s got cheese in there. I’ll take their word for it. Then we’ve got something called “cheese culture”… hmmm, could still be legit. Then it all goes to shit. Cellulose powder and Potassium Sorbate? Those don’t sound Italian to me!
My point is, why would you buy this second rate crap in a plastic bottle when you can buy a fresh hunk of the real deal, and grate it when you’re good and ready to eat it? I know, it’s cheap, easy and with that Potassium Sorbate in there the stuff should last forever!
I felt the same way (sorta) until about 2 weeks ago. It WAS easy, and for some reason my wife loves the stuff. She prefers Stove Top stuffing over the real stuff too, but we’ll save that for another post. What changed my mind? I’m glad you asked.
We just returned from a trip to Italy and Spain. We both agree that each of us had what could quite possibly be the best meals we’ve ever shoveled into our little mouths. Particularly in Italy. I think the magic comes from simple ingredients, used at their prime freshness in a thoughtful manner. Here’s an example. My super fantastic meal consisted of 5 ingredients: trofie pasta, pesto, potatoes, green beans and of course a generous dusting of Parmigiano-Reggiano.
It was so simple, yet so intense. The pasta tasted like it was made an hour ago. The pesto was bursting with more basil flavor than I’ve ever dreamed of getting from mine. The veggies were super fresh and only cooked slightly so they retained their color and crispness. The parmesan had clearly just been cut from a giant block that’s probably kept in a dark closet behind lock and key, with it’s own thermostat.
When you use fresh ingredients, your food just tastes better… every. single. time.
Where the hell am I going with this? I’m glad you asked that too. I already knew that I wanted to replace as many shortcuts as possible in my kitchen with fresh, homemade stuff. I started this vacation with the intention of buying a few cool kitchen gadgets from the other side of the world. So, as I was standing there looking in the window of this cute little kitchen supply store in the Cinque Terre, I knew I’d found my first gift to me.
Made from olive wood that’s probably thousands of years old (just go with me on this, ok?) and metal that is painstakingly formed into the perfect shape, I had to have that cheese grater. Our train was going to leave in about 7 minutes and all I wanted was that cheese grater. The nice shopkeeper wanted to explain in great detail every aspect of the thing, which I’m sure would have been fascinating if I’d had the time. But the idea of pulling that baby out at my next dinner party and wowing my guests with the taste of freshly grated parmesan served from the handy wooden box made me stand and listen politely.
The picture you see above is of me using it once we returned to Barcelona. I made a vegetable stew that I’ve been perfecting for years (which I’ll write about later) and decided it was time to christen the cheese grater. So, I did what any self-respecting food geek would do and asked my wife to man the camera… I was going in. Was it easier than using a regular ol’ Wal Mart cheese grater that goes for a 1/10th of the price? I really think it was. There’s no bowl to balance the grater over while you run the cheese back and forth, making sure not to let your knuckles touch. The wooden box holds the grater still AND it catches every last flake of that cheesy goodness. Then you slide the grater out, plop a spoon in the box and set it on the table proudly. It’s just that easy.
Now, how much would you pay for such a contraption??? Let me know, and I may give the guy a call to work on importing some of these babies.
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