YOU'D BE CRAZY TO THROW AWAY YOUR CHEESE RINDS

From Cookthink:
I was at the Italian stand at the market the other day, asking a bald Frenchman for a small hunk of Parmesan. “How about this?” he asked, holding up a plastic tub filled with scraps, the remnants of broken cheese cut for fools who didn’t care to take the rinds home. “Are you crazy?” I found myself half-shouting, offended that I seemed like the kind of person who wanted her Parmesan without the added bonus of its magical skin. “The rinds are the best part!”
The bald man listened as I gave an impromptu speech about the many uses of the Parmesan rind: how added to vegetable soups and rice dishes, tomato sauces or simmering white beans, then removed before serving, it adds a cheesy essence and subtle depth. It’s not every day you get to educate a Frenchman on the fine points of cuisine.
The bald man’s Italian boss returned from his coffee break and backed me up, saying that in Italy they add rinds to cooking risotto, and give the softened rinds to toothless infants to suck on once they have shed their salty, savory, umami-like essence into the pot. Even non-babies will appreciate the thin layer of cheesy goo that results from simmering the rind.
You can make a Parmesan stock out of rinds by simmering them gently in water and straining at the end. You can also add rind to simmering potatoes, pasta or rice. I especially like to add a Parmesan rind to broccoli or minestrone soup and skip the actual cheese. You can also try using rinds of other aged cheeses — my British friends add Stilton or aged cheddar rinds to their broccoli soup — but be careful to remove any wax coating before using. Parmesan rinds can be kept in the fridge for spontaneous usage, or frozen if necessary.
Recipe: Lidia Bastianich’s Rice And Potato Soup With Parmigiano Rind (The Wednesday Chef)