I use one of these little mini-choppers. We have a bigger food processor but it’s a PITA to use, but the little one you just toss stuff in and push down. It’s small so it isn’t cumbersome to wash.
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This is definitely overkill for grating some parmesan over pasta. Microplane or a small hand grater is plenty for parmesan. They also clean up easy, and are useful for other small grating tasks, such as zests.
I actually prefer shaved Parmesan to grated. I also love to slice it thin and eat it with crackers, or straight up.
I find hand graters difficult to wash completely clean without a dishwasher, which my otherwise rather nicely appointed kitchen doesn’t have - that’s why I use a food processor.
Some good info in this thread, especially in regard to purchasing acceptable cheese. I’m going to look carefully at labels next time I buy, and maybe try the mail-order suggestion mentioned upthread.
San Vito, my good sir (or madam) - you wound me greatly with your “cooking idleness” remark. My thread title aside, I am anything but lazy in the kitchen. Right now I have homemade papaya chutney, sourdough bread, vegetarian chile, and more in my freezer. If anything, I spend too much time cooking elaborate food! But surely even a dedicated cook can be forgiven for wanting to save on clean-up when it’s getting late and the day has already been a busy one.
My Microplane takes two swipes with a sponge to clean. It takes more effort to carry it to the dishwasher.
You could just keep a stick of the cheese by your plate and nibble on it as you eat.
Gnaw is probably the more accurate word.
Yes. The food processor is so much more a pain-in-the-ass to clean. I like having a food processor around, but I avoid using it as much as possible for that reason. With a food processor, I have to disassemble the thing, clean the main compartment, get my sponge into all the nooks and crannies, clean the blade, and clean the lid. With a Microplane-type grater or even a box grater, it’s, like you say, just a couple swipes of the sponge under running water. Three to five seconds at most to get it clean.
Vegetarian chile? That’s called “salsa”.
Boom! 
Point taken. Perhaps I should say I have an “Anasazi bean and quinoa stew” in the freezer.
ETA: From the comments above it sounds like I would be wise to get a microplane. Is this what y’all are referring to? It doesn’t look like it would get clean easily without a dishwasher, but I will trust the Doper community if you tell me otherwise.
I’ve got several Microplanes in various widths and degrees of coarseness. I’d recommend a wider one for cheese. Perhaps one ofthese
I find they wash easily with hot water and a sponge as long as what I’ve grated is not fibrous.
On the site I’ve linked they explain the uses of each degree of coarseness. Take a look.
Except the convex microplanes are annoying as hell on cheese, makes it way too difficult to slice evenly later it you want.
You just turn the cheese as you grate it.
Then it’s impossible to slice evenly.(unless you have a cambered draw cheese knife or something).
For my camp meal contribution at Burning Man I make two batches of chili, one with 97% ground beef, the other with TVP ‘beef’ from Trader Joe’s. The pots are set out labeled Chili con carne and Chili sin carne. They both disappear at equal rates.
No, you make one batch of chili, and one batch of salsa. Did I not make myself clear in my previous post? :eek:
I don’t like the microplane for cheese. It produces powder, which isn’t recognizable as cheese.
You are using the wrong model. I have several and can produce product ranging from small shreds to wide ribbons.
Damn! I just tried to order from them - they’ve got a good deal right now - 2 lbs for $35, which isn’t particularly expensive for the Big Island, where everything costs more. But the cheapest shipping cost available is an added $20. Phooey. I need to think on this. Is two pounds of high quality parmesan worth $55 to me?
Maybe. But I’m not going to place the order until I think about it for a while.
Ban pre-shredded cheese. Make America grate again!!
They come in various sizes. I use one with fairly small holes (same size as the small holes on your standard box grater–about 1/8"), and I don’t get powder, but rather thin strands, like hair, when I grate it. But you can also get those small hand-held graters with holes a 1/4", which is the size of the bigger holes on a box grater, and that produces shavings. Like this one. (Though I personally just use a cheaper Chefmate brand rather than Microplane.)
Mine is flat, but I don’t mind the curved ones as the types of cheese I use it on are not cheese I’d cut into slices, anyway. I typically cut off a chunk of parm or pecorino anyway before grating it.