When You Don't Have Parmesan
 

It seems like every other recipe these days calls for Parmesan cheese. However, it's so expensive and the quality in the stores around here just isn't that good. I'm always looking for something to substitute. I frequently use toasted bread crumbs for pasta dishes. Got any other ideas?

I buy the parmesan shreds at Sam's in the big bag. I freeze and use as needed. One bag will last me for months. It tastes fine in recipes and sprinkled on salads, pasta, etc. Most restaurants use the frozen except for garnish, then it's the fresh.

I've been using Cotija a lot over the last couple of years. In Seattle, it was easy to find in the "mexican" cheese section of the cheeses, but not so easy for me to find here.

Cotija is a firm non-melting cheese, but gives a nice cheese crumble, if feta is too strong, cotija is perfect! Particularly in things with black beans or mango salsa is my go-to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotija_cheese

Yes...I love Cotija too. It's usually less expensive than most American, or European cheeses.

We buy the bag of grated parm at Costco and store in the freezer. DH uses it baking and it is ok in cooked dishes. We prefer to eat the good stuff by the slice or sliver--a hold over from our years in Italy when a nice hunk of parmegiana was always on a dessert cheese board. And I hang on to the rind to throw into soup.

Finely chopped almonds, a tiny bit of nutritional yeast, salt, toasted in a little bit of olive oil in cast iron pan.

If you google your question you'll get many suggestions. At Tastingtable.com (not a link) there are 12 suggestions there.
We love putting olive oil and parmesan on popcorn but also really like pecorino which we get at Trader Joe's. Sorry, don't
know at the moment which is less expensive at TJ's. As others have mentioned, Costco is good as well as Grocery
Outlet.

-Chopped black or green olives are good on pasta.
-Any kind of seeds, such as sesame, hemp, sunflower, chia, poppy, etc.

Toasted bread crumbs with anchovies is delicious! Sometime I just use the oil from the anchovy tin and not the fish themselves to toast the breadcrumbs.

Nutritional yeast can be used in some recipes instead of cheese. Its easy to keep on hand and does have a cheesy flavor.