Farro

This is a hearty meal in a bowl—like an antipasto with the added substance of the earthy grain.

This ragù, in the tradition of Potenza (the capital of Basilicata), is a versatile sauce, equally delicious with cooked grains such as farro, wheat berries, or barley, or as a dressing for almost any pasta you choose. This recipe gives a combination I particularly love, with cooked farro stirred into the pot of ragù just before serving. The nuttiness of the grain and the earthiness of the pork sauce are flavors that remind me of the bountiful Sunday and holiday dinners that are traditional in the lower part of the peninsula. And though it is a dish steeped in old traditions, it is healthful and economical, and will certainly shine on today’s table, for any occasion.

"Talk to most chefs and they'll say they'd want a perfectly roasted chicken for their last meal," says Sean Brock. For his definitive version, Brock starts with superflavorful heritage-breed chickens, but the key to the dish is prepoaching the bird in an immersion circulator. Because most home cooks don't have access to this equipment, we adapted the recipe to work in a home kitchen.

Farro, an ancient Italian grain similar to barley, is available at specialty foods stores and Italian markets.

For this twist on classic risotto, The Kitchen uses farro (hence the name "farrotto") instead of rice. No endless stirring required!

Chef Max Mackissock of The Squeaky Bean in Denver takes a back-to-nature approach to ingredients: He uses produce straight from the garden at his restaurant or the farmers’ market the eatery hosts weekly. With veggies like that, who needs meat? This tasty vegan dish has plenty of protein, plus healthy carbs, thanks to whole-grain, fiber-rich farro.

Farro, an ancient variety of wheat, has a hearty texture and a nutty flavor. Here, the whole grain is tossed with bitter radicchio and earthy beets for a pretty, delicious, and healthful salad.

Farro is a nutty-flavored grain that's popular in Tuscany. It's not as heavy as some other whole grains, but it's still packed with protein, fiber, magnesium, and vitamins A, B, C, and E. Here, it's the base for a satisfying summer salad.

Food editor Maggie Ruggiero was humming for weeks after enjoying a salad of fresh buffalo mozzarella, cucumber, and the Italian wheat called farro at the Manhattan restaurant Il Buco. She set about reimagining it, and her version’s accents—tender lettuce, basil, and a light, lemony dressing—beautifully complement the cheese. Since fresh mozzarella is the star here, it's essential to use the best you can find. We love the kind traditionally made in Italy from the milk of water buffalo for its custardlike texture and sweet, milky tang. Recently, some American producers have gotten in on the act as well.

This comforting, risotto-like take on kale makes a great vegetarian entrée, and it's also good topped with a piece of roasted salmon fillet. Farro is also known as emmer wheat. Be sure to buy semi-pearled, or perlato, which doesn't need presoaking.

Farro is a nutty grain similar to spelt. A whole-grain wheat grown in Italy, it has a firm, chewy texture when cooked. Look for semi-pearled farro, which has some hulls already removed from the grain and therefore cooks faster.

This side dish plays the dual role of salad (with crunchy fennel and carrot and fresh parsley) and bed for the Cornish hens (recipe precedes) — the seasoning of these chewy grains echoes that of the olive butter tucked under the birds' skin.

Minestra di farro
Puréed-bean soups can sometimes be monotonous, but here farro's seductively chewy texture is anything but boring. This recipe has the comforting appeal of pasta e fagioli. Farro is available from Far Away Foods (farawayfoods.com).

Farro is often said to be the Italian word for "spelt," but it is actually a different strain of wheat.

This healthful vegetarian dish would be perfect for a picnic. To speed prep time, use trimmed sugar snap peas with the strings removed (find them in the produce section of many supermarkets).

Farro, an old-world wheat variety, has taken today's Tuscan cooking by storm. It has been cultivated in the Garfagnana — an area of forests in northern Tuscany — for millennia. Traditionally, the grain was used to make soups and porridge; now it's a part of any number of dishes, including risotto, where it replaces the rice, and salads like this one. If you cannot find farro, use wheat berries.

This impressive dish is served at Le Cirque 2000 in New York. Order two 5-pound fresh ducklings from a butcher. Ask the butcher to cut each duck into two boneless breasts, two leg pieces, and two thigh pieces. Reserve the carcasses for making the sauce. You will probably need to order the rendered duck fat as well.

Peyton Hughes of Iowa City, Iowa, writes: "My extended family met for a reunion in Boston a few months ago. For our last night together, we decided it would be appropriate to have dinner at Finale. I'll never forget the unusual grilled portobello salad." Farro, or spelt, is a cereal grain that's been eaten in southern Europe for ages.

(Grain and Tomato Salad) One summer my husband, Massimo, and I vacationed with our son, Max, near Lucca, about an hour from Florence. There we discovered a local specialty, farro, an ancient grain (emmer, often called spelt, in English) similar to barley, traditionally used in bean soup there. We bought lots of it, and Massimo then made a salad based on panzanella but substituting the boiled farro, for soaked and squeezed bread — a terrific idea that has become a warm-weather favorite.

Celebrate the best of the season—zucchini, tomatoes, corn, and more—all in one pot.