Cheaper alternative to parmesan cheese?

Grana padano and pecorino romano are two other very savory, hard grating cheeses that work well on pasta. They taste a bit different than Parmigiano-Reggiano, but are quite good in their own right and often less expensive. You can also look at parmesan type cheeses that are not actually Parmigiano-Reggiano. For example, Whole Foods often has one from Argentina that offers a reasonable price/performance tradeoff. All of that said, in many people's opinion, nothing is really quite as delicious as true Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Buy in bulk and save

"Expensive but going to be used in cooking anyway" cheeses such as Parmesan or blue varieties freeze extremely well

The do loose their presentation quality, but retain their taste, smell, and texture qualities

I have had good quality blue vein wheels in the freezer for over a year and they are still perfect (though not much left now :-[ )

Processes as required (crumb, grate, shave etc.), and then pack into air tight freezer bags, and boxed for protection

Also, restaurant food wholesalers sell bulk bags of pre-processed Parmesan which you can freeze as is. Typically 1Kg plastic zip-lock style bags. You can usually get a cash account with them for small purchases. They will often sell wheels in 1/4 or 1/2's too

I think it's worth the money, but buy in bulk like from Costco or Wholesale. You can get a big block for about 20 bucks and it lasts a long time in the fridge.

Parmesan is rich in glutamates, the stuff that gives us the umami or meaty savoury taste. That's why we like it so much. If you want to replace it, try replacing it with another cheese that was mentioned, but beef up the umami with another source. Depending on what you are cooking, a glutamate rich food such as anchovies, mushrooms, marmite, MSG, soy sauce, sea kelp.... in small portions would do the trick and not effect the dish much.

You could also try nutritional yeast - its a vegan alternative for yeast. Its quite 'cheesy'.

All that said, its hard to pass up Parmesan (the real stuff). Its just one of those things its probably worth biting the bullet for. Also, the rind of the cheese going in chicken stock is indispensable!

Another option is to make your own Parmesan Cheese... not an immediate solution but it is interesting to do at least once. It isn't exactly difficult, but it does take a while to mature.

oh goodness, never considered parmesan that way - but maybe another sharp Italian cheddar would be more to your liking? Try pecorino romano, or a sharp matured asiago or maybe an aged provolone if you can find a sharp one?

I tend to think if you got a better quality parmesan like Reggiano or Padano you may like it? it can be expensive though.