I started buying Spelt/Farro back when I really got into Italian cooking about 20 years ago. I have used it in soups, there is a Minestra di Farro in one of the Bugialli cookbooks that I've made several times. And I have not made it but I've seen recipes for a sweet Farro pie for dessert. At any rate there is usually some in my pantry.
So, the other day I had the TV on and stumbled over Martha Stewart, the show was called GRAINS and she was talking about Farro. I had to see what she would do. What she did kind of blew my mind. Normally I can look at the ingredients in a recipe and visualize the flavors of the final product. I had no clue what this would taste like and so I had to try it for myself.
She put some olive oil on a cookie sheet and filled it with stemmed, seedless red grapes. Another cookie sheet, olive oil, and fill with 1/4 inch high round onion slices from 2 red onions. (Meanwhile cook Farro in salted water until plumped and tender, and drain, and add some more salt). Oven at a high temperature like 450F. Grapes on high shelf, onions on low shelf. Every 15 minutes flip the onions, maybe a little more olive oil and salt, stir the grapes, ditto. You will be done by 45 minutes, mine were done earlier -- grapes should lose their shape and be pulpy, onions should be soft and caramelized, somewhat browned. Let this stuff cool a bit and then just scrape each cookie sheet into a big bowl and stir into the Farro. Add something like a tablespoon of good red wine vinegar, and 3 tablespoons of EVOO. Stir everything around. For the crowning touch -- buy a package of baby kale leaves (I was shocked to learn that the grocery store 2 blocks from my house, which doesn't have ANYTHING, has baby kale now). You need to break off the long stems, and it's probably good to tear the biggest leaves in half. I think she said something like four cups of kale leaves (hard to measure anyway) but you heap the leaves on top and then toss to incorporate.
The flavor was refreshing, different, unexpected and it's a lovely cold salad on a summer day. There is a recipe online but it is older and she has you cut each grape in half and then put the cookie sheet in a 250F oven for more than an hour. The onion rings are done in a frying pan in the older recipe. Also she says to put rosemary into the farro while it's simmering, which is a very Italian touch.
Those onions are so savory in the salad and each pulpy grape is a sweet surprise on the palate. Nice, Martha!
http://www.marthastewart.com/284931/far ... grapes-and
