Rehydrating parmesian cheese

[murphymom]

Got a question - a while back I bought a big Costco hunk of parmesian cheese and am down to the end of it which is hard as a rock and almost impossible to grate. Any suggestions on how I could make it a little more malleable so I can use it up? If not, any good ideas on what to do with it? I tried cutting it in smaller chunks and running it through the blender, but the texture is still too coarse, although I could probably put it in something where I intended for it to melt.

Damned if I'm going to waste it.

[Duer 157099]

1. The only thing I've ever seen to do with it is throw it in a soup

I've never done it though. There must be something else to do with it though, I just don't know what.

[The empressof all]

2. Don't throw it away.

If you can get a coarse shred on it you can spread it out on some parchment, like cookies and bake it. You'll get wonderful cheese crackers which are terrific on top of salads.

When it gets down to the rind throw it in some Minestrone while it's cooking.

[Stinky The Clown]

3. It sounds like you're down to the rind, whch, as you note, is pretty much inedible. So use it ......

.... to flavor soup. The soup that will benefit most is a chicken broth based soup.

[murphymom]

4. Thanks, guys

I wound up trying to use it up in some risotto. When I was heating up the chicken broth with dried mushrooms to cook the rice in, I threw the hunk of cheese rind in and let it simmer for a bit. It softened it up enough that I could get a knife through it to chop it in little pieces, then I blasted it in the blender to crumble it as best I could. I added it in at the end of the cooking time, but it didn't really melt down the way I hoped and it tasted stronger than I would have liked. Oh, well, the rice still came out good - waste not, want not!