Tag Archive for 'farro'

Butternet Squash, Farro & Sausage Soup

Published by mel on February 4, 2009 in entree, recipe and sides & bites.

Butternet Squash, Farro & Sausage Soup

Before I begin waxing poetic about soup, a story. Every year at Thanksgiving, I roast garlic. Usually for my famous Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes. This year, for a too-greasy Roasted Garlic Manchego Gratin from Food & WIne. The process is always the same — place garlic cloves in a shallow baking dish, drown them in olive oil, cover with foil, spill oil in the hot oven, smell smoke, then run around with paper towels trying to mop up burning, smoking oil from the bottom of the oven while trying not to burn myself or set anything on fire. Sounds fun no? It’s awesome.

Since this happens every year in my mom’s usually-clean oven, she bought me a teeny, tiny Le Creuset dutch oven that’s just the right size for roasting garlic. And as a bonus, it comes with a snug-fitting top so I won’t spill hot oil all over the place. Sometimes traditions must come to an end. This cute little pot is also useful for blog photos. See how pretty my soup looks?

Moving on, this soup is thick and hearty, really flavorful, super simple. Start with a couple of very spicy sausages, add butternut squash, pearled farro, chicken stock and curry powder…maybe a few handfuls of baby spinach for color, and you’ve got a delicious little lunch that’s satisfying and warm on a cold day. It also sets off my new Le Creuset mini-pot nicely!

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Butternut Squash Farro w/Pancetta and Cardamom Pecans

Published by mel on October 30, 2008 in entree, recipe and sides & bites.

Butternut Squash Farro w/Pancetta and Cardamom Pecans

I think I may have a problem. I’m completely and totally obsessed with Fall ingredients. Pumpkin, squash, sage, pecans, cranberries, cinnamon, cardamom and anything “smoky”, but especially smoked paprika. There’s just something about smoked paprika that brings out the pumpkness of pumpkin and the squashiness of squash. But I digress…

I had planned on making a fall-flavored farro risotto, which I’ve made before and love, but it turns out I was too lazy to stand and stir for 30 minutes (I opted for sitting on the couch sipping coffee instead). And honestly, the stirring just wasn’t necessary this time since pureed butternut squash gives the farro that creamy risotto-like consistency. It also didn’t hurt that I toasted the farro in rendered pancetta fat. Everything’s better toasted in rendered pancetta fat. Everything.

So, I cooked up my toasted farro in some white wine and chicken stock, then stirred in the butternut squash, smoked paprika and red pepper flakes. This farro goodness is topped with cardamom honey toasted pecans, sage and crumbled pancetta for a deliciously warm, smoky sweet bowl of comfort food.

I’d like to promise you a break from all of this fall food, but I don’t see an end in sight as I’m also slightly obsessed with planning our Thanksgiving menu with my mom, and I’ve got all of these autumnal recipes to test out. So, bear with me while I cook every squash and cranberry in sight.

Related:
Cornmeal & Cayenne Shrimp w/Cheddar Farro Risotto
Causage & Chard with Farro Risotto
Farro Salad w/Bacon & Cauliflower
Butternut Squash Beef Stroganoff
Autumn Turkey Pumpkin Lasagna
Homemade Cranberry Spice Granola Bars

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farro salad w/bacon & cauliflower

Published by mel on September 9, 2008 in entree, recipe and sides & bites.

farro salad w/bacon & cauliflower

I’ve long proclaimed my love of farro. I especially love its chewy texture and the way it absorbs flavors while still maintaining its own subtle nutty taste. A perfect grain for make-ahead salads.

As I was leafing through the latest Food & Wine magazine this weekend, I spied a recipe for a prosciutto cafilulower farro salad and immediately bookmarked it. I bookmark a lot of recipes on websites, in magazine, in cookbooks. I email them to myself and print them out, but never seem to get around to making them. Mostly they sit in my Inbox, or get sandwiched between my cookbooks for months. So, I think this might be a record for me. Bookmarked on Sunday, eating by Tuesday…It looked that good.

But as with every recipe, I couldn’t leave it alone. In fact, I swapped some of the ingredients and left most of them out. They just didn’t seem necessary. Instead of cubed prosciutto (cubed prosciutto is wrong – very, very wrong), I used bacon. Really good Niman Ranch Applewood smoked bacon. I love the sweet smokiness it added to the salad and it played very well with the cauliflower. I also added some arugula because a salad needs its greens, and some lemon juice to brighten it up.

I had this salad for lunch and absolutely love it as main dish. It’s rich and hearty, but still feels light and healthy. How can it be? I don’t know. It just is.

Update: Added pecans to this, which made it even better.

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valentine’s sausage & chard with farro risotto

Published by mel on February 15, 2008 in dessert, entree and recipe.

sausage kale tomatoes parmesan farro risotto

I’ve never done the Valentine’s Day thing. The big fancy dinner, the flowers, the chocolate. Frankly, I’m just not into it. While I do love going out to dinner and exploring new places, I don’t particularly like crowded and cramped restaurants, prix fixe or valet parking. I do like cooking a new meal, using fine china and dining at our formal table using cloth napkins.

I’ve cooked for Tom almost every Valentine’s day we’ve been together. In fact, the only year I didn’t cook for him, I tend to forget how we celebrated. Our first February 14th, I made him seared tuna steak with a cold noodle salad. It was his first tuna steak and we ate on the floor of my East Village studio because it was the only place to sit comfortably in those 275 square feet.

The second year is the one I really tend to forget. It’s the year he had a Spanish class until late and we went to Otto for pizza on my lunch hour. A cab splashed me with some very dirty melted snow as Tom was walking me back to work.

Last year, I made a pizza with sausage, artichokes and ricotta. Speaking of love, I love pizza.

This year, I sauteed sausage, heirloom tomatoes and swiss chard and spooned it over some Parmesan farro risotto. I served it in my pretty fine china and we had a quiet meal without the tv.

chocolate ice crea,

I had also made some of David Lebovitz’s Easiest chocolate ice cream the night before, which ended up being supremely smooth and delicious. Of course, I made some modifications because I just couldn’t help myself. I subbed vodka for the dark rum because that’s what was in the cabinet, and I sprinkled it with fleur de sel which made the chocolate even more chocolatey and gave it a subtle crunch every few bites. The entire dessert-making process took less than 10 minutes, but tasted like it took 100. Too bad it all kind of melted before I took the photo which makes it look wholly unappetizing. Sigh. Aha! Replaced it with something MUCH better than the melty poo.

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cornmeal & cayenne shrimp w/cheddar farro risotto

Published by mel on January 11, 2008 in entree and recipe.

Not that I’m making any resolutions or anything, but this year I’m going to try to use more and different whole grains in my cooking. I’ve pretty much cut out any pasta that isn’t whole wheat. I just think it tastes heartier than its pale counterpart, and it’s definitely more satisfying. I’m going the same way with rice. I’ve used red, green and black rice. They have a more unique flavor and add beautifully deep colors to a dish. So, out with the white, bleached stuff and in with the multi-colored grains.

That said, I’ve been hearing about farro forever, but have never been able to find it at any of my local stores. Farro is an ancient Italian grain, somewhat like barley, that can be used in soups, salads, or in place of rice. I’ve wanted to make a more nutritious risotto for awhile, but was hesitant to use barley in place of arborio rice. I thought it would be too—for lack of a better word—gloopy. I was delighted when I found a pearled farro at Whole Foods this weekend, and immediately snatched it up for some farroto (that would be risotto made with farro).

I had some extra shrimp, so I decided on cornmeal and cayenne crusted shrimp. To keep with the slightly Creole theme, I stirred some Cheddar and Kale into the farro risotto. The farro risotto was as rich and creamy as traditional risotto; I don’t think I’ll be using arborio again anytime soon. It was a very warm, satiating dish and we ate every last grain of the farro (which probably negated all the health benefits).

Recipe below.

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