Culinary experts have urged home cooks to avoid throwing away one type of food scrap, as it can help lift the flavours of future meals. The foodie whizzes at Delish suggested that the likes of Parmesan rind can be the secret ingredient you need to bolster the flavour of sauces.
Although Parmesan rind isn’t pleasant to eat itself, it still holds bags of flavour. It can be particularly useful for a tomato-based pasta sauce recipe. So next time you’re thinking about throwing away the rind, don’t.
In a recent TikTok video, the Delish experts demonstrated three different ways you can use a leftover rind. When it comes to making pasta sauces, it can add another layer of flavour, including some much-needed salt.
Delish said, “Last thing you should do, add it to your sauce. As the cheese rind melts, it will melt right into that sauce, adding salty umami back notes.”
By adding an umami-rich ingredient like Parmesan cheese, it can help amplify the flavours already in the sauce, without it tasting ‘cheesy’. Umami adds a layer of richness and depth to tomato-based sauces.
Umami is a fundamental taste, often described as savoury or meaty, and can be found in ingredients such as meat, cheese, and seaweed. Once you’ve let the flavours of the Parmesan infuse into your sauce, you don’t have to throw them away just yet.
Instead, Delish actually recommended eating the leftovers as a snack. They said: “And if you wanna double use your Parmesan rind, take it out of the sauce, cut it up and put it in the microwave.
“And then you have a pizza-esque Parmesan crisp. Save the rind always.”
You can also use the rind to make a Parmesan crisp, which can be rustled up in the microwave in just two minutes. This will help the rind puff up and become crunchy. Or you can use the rind to make a broth.