Vegetarian ParmesanPosted on 2008/07/06 15:33:06 (July 2008). Parmesan is pretty much the bane of vegetarian dishes when dining out - how often have you seen a risotto or a pasta dish with Parmesan shavings as the token vegetarian offering on a restaurant menu? I can kind of understand the chef's line of thinking here - they want to use this slightly luxurious ingredient to add a spark of interest to an otherwise fairly mundane dish (and to justify the price of course!).
Unfortunately, genuine Parmesan is never vegetarian. The name is a "protected designation of origin" under EU law, much like Champagne, and within the EU you can only call a cheese Parmesan if it is made in certain designated areas of Italy. Within Italy the production is strictly supervised and controlled to ensure the cheesemakers follow the traditional method. The traditional method, of course, uses an animal rennet.
All hope is not entirely lost though, as there are some (well, two) substitute cheeses available here in the UK made using a similar method to Parmesan but with vegetarian rennet. For legal reasons they don't seem to be able to write the word Parmesan anywhere on their packaging, and instead have to settle for names like "Italian style hard cheese"
 My favourite is the award winning Twineham Grange (also called "Farmer's Hand") from Bookham Cheese.
The other one I've seen on occasion is Castelli's Vegetalia.
I've used both of these over the past few years, and found them both perfect for grating and shaving to sprinkle on top of dishes as a final touch, as well as adding to sauces and in making my own pesto.
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