Parmigiano Reggiano is one of the most widely used ingredients in the Italian cuisine: from pasta dishes to many traditional recipes, but it’s a pleasure even eat it simply like a cheese. We suggest to try it with figs, grapes, walnuts and a good glass of rosè wine or of dry white wine.
There are many misconceptions about the word Parmesan, but there is no doubt whatsoever about Parmesan cheese’s origin! Parmesan refers to the famous cheese made in and around the Italian province of Parma for the past eight centuries and more. It was monk in the area around Parma who first started making a distinctive hard cheese during the Middle Ages. It was known as caseum paramensis in Latin, and locals shortened this to Pramsàn, in dialect. By the 1530s, Italian nobles began to refer to the cheese as Parmesano, meaning “of or from Parma”.
In 2008, European courts decreed that Parmigiano Reggiano is the only hard cheese that can legally be called Parmesan. In so doing, they acknowledged the historical fact that the word can be traced to Parma and that consumers associate the cheese with its origin in the Parma-Reggio region of Italy. These court rulings mean that a cheese cannot be called Parmesan unless it conforms to the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) standards for Parmigiano Reggiano.