Pantry Staples

Farro (Uncooked)

Farro is an ancient wheat variety with a nutty flavor and pleasantly chewy texture, distinct from more processed modern wheat products, and it's grown in popularity recently as a whole-grain alternative to rice or pasta.

It comes in whole, semi-pearled, and pearled forms, differing in how much of the bran layer has been removed — whole farro takes longest to cook but retains the most fiber and nutty character.

It's central to Italian cooking, particularly in Tuscany, where it appears in hearty soups and grain salads, a tradition considerably older than farro's recent popularity in US health-food circles.

Farro is sometimes used as a catch-all term covering three genuinely different wheat species — farro piccolo (einkorn), farro medio (emmer), and farro grande (spelt) — and Italian regions have historically favored different ones, which is part of why farro sold in different stores or countries doesn't always refer to the exact same grain.

Emmer wheat, the species most commonly sold as farro in the US today, is one of the earliest domesticated grains in human history, cultivated in the Fertile Crescent thousands of years before more modern, higher-yielding wheat varieties gradually displaced it across much of the ancient world.

Because farro's outer bran layer is genuinely tougher than a modern wheat berry's, whole (unpearled) farro benefits from a soak of several hours or overnight before cooking, a step that shortens the cooking time noticeably and is less necessary with the faster-cooking semi-pearled or pearled versions.

Farro's rediscovery in American grocery stores and restaurants over the past couple of decades mirrors a broader renewed interest in "ancient grains" generally, alongside quinoa and spelt, part of a wider culinary trend toward grains positioned as more nutritious or interesting alternatives to standard refined wheat products.

A farro salad, tossed cold with roasted vegetables, herbs, and a vinaigrette, has become a common modern grain-bowl staple precisely because farro's naturally chewy texture holds up well to sitting dressed for a while without turning mushy, unlike a softer cooked grain that can break down if dressed too far in advance.

Farro is sometimes cooked risotto-style, gradually ladling warm broth into the pot while stirring, a technique borrowed directly from Arborio rice preparation and sometimes called "farrotto," giving the finished dish a creamy consistency around the still-chewy grains rather than the more separate, distinct grains of a plain boiled batch.

A batch of farro cooked plain and kept in the fridge holds its texture noticeably better than most other cooked grains over several days, since its firmer bran layer resists breaking down into mush the way a softer grain like rice can when reheated repeatedly.

Farro's chewy texture makes it a reasonable substitute for barley in a hearty vegetable soup or a mushroom-barley-style dish, adding heft and body to the broth without dissolving into it the way an overcooked pasta or rice would after simmering for an extended period.

Because farro's protein content is somewhat higher than that of white rice, a farro-based grain bowl can feel more filling per serving than an equivalent portion of a more refined starch, part of why it's frequently marketed as a heartier base for a vegetarian main dish.