One of the first lessons I learned in my home-cooking journey is that most dishes, regardless of country or culture of origin, could probably use a bit more salt.
Yes, fast- and frozen-food manufacturers seem determined to see how much salt and sugar they can cram into a given meal, but when you’re cooking at home, I think we have a tendency to under-season our meals.
Throw an extra half-teaspoon of salt into the next thing you cook, see how it goes (DISCLAIMER: Maybe I’m wrong and reducing salt intake is a lot more important than we know. But I do not care. If salt is trash, then I am a raccoon).
My go-to is good, old-fashioned Morton’s Kosher, and Maldon’s flaky stuff is stellar, but last year I was introduced to a true superhero of salinity: Parmigiano stock.
I’ve made stocks and broths from scratch before, but I don’t think they’re worth the time and effort, especially when the store-bought stuff is plenty good. But Parm Stock is worth it. I’ve expounded on the virtues of pasta water, but Parm Stock is like pasta water’s older, more well-traveled sibling.
Crucially, this stuff helped me win a battle I’d been caught in with my family’s red sauce recipe for years. I could never cook a tomato sauce that had the silky-yet-not-too-thick, watery-but-not-too-thin consistency that my dad’s sauce always has, but one cube of Parm Stock took me there.
From there, I started going nuts with it.
Parm Stock is an absolute necessity in cacio e pepe and carbonara and it’s awesome in any grain like polenta, orzo and risotto. I haven’t used it as a base broth, but I do throw a bit in my tomato, Italian wedding and matzo ball soups. It’s also excellent in the Pesto alla Trapanese recipe I fell in love with last year.
Parm Stock is so powerful I’m almost afraid to push its limits. I’ve toyed with the idea of subbing it in for olive brine in a dirty martini, which feels reasonable, but I’d guess cooking fresh pasta in a 50-50 water and Parm Stock solution would propel you to levels of umami previously untold.
I found out about Parm Stock in Stanley Tucci’s memoir, which was a real delight and one of the best things I read last year.
There are a lot of recipes for Parmigiano Stock out there, but most make the mistake of including garlic, parsley and other Italian-adjacent ingredients. It’s an easy mistake to make, but turns out Americans mindlessly throwing that stuff into recipes is a punchline for legit Italian chefs:
This recipe keeps it simple. The highest-effort parts are remembering to hold onto parmesan rinds and finding a cheesecloth. Also, ice trays are the perfect storage vessel for this, since a cube is usually all you need and it keeps for months.
I tweaked some of the measurements to taste and encourage you do the same. This is just what worked for me.
STANLEY’S PARMIGIANO STOCK (PICHAEL’S VERSION)
INGREDIENTS
~1 cup of parmesan cheese rinds
1/3 cup of kosher salt
6 peppercorns
3 bay leaves
1 quart of water
DIRECTIONS
Bring the water to a boil. Add the bay leaves, salt and pepper corns.
Stuff the rinds in a cheese cloth. (I got cheesecloth bags that can fit 3-4 rinds in each and filled up two of them)
Add the rinds to the water.
Cover and simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
Strain and put in everything.