Torta Salata Di Farro - Savory Farro Pie

"A traditional dish of the hills around Lucca. It calls for cracked farro, which cooks faster. I first heard of farro from Giada De Laurentiis, who made a salad from it (a recipe which I've posted). Farro is similar to wheat berries."
 
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photo by januarybride photo by januarybride
photo by januarybride
photo by januarybride photo by januarybride
Ingredients:
9
Serves:
6
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ingredients

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directions

  • Preheat oven to 370 degrees F (180 C).
  • Prepare the farro: Wash it well, picking out impurities such as bits of chaff, pebbles, or bad grains. In a medium saucepan, combine the farro with about 4 cups water and 2 teaspoons salt, then turn heat to high and bring it all to a boil.
  • When it has come to a boil, reduce the temperature to medium low, cover, and let simmer until the farro is tender, about 30 minutes.
  • Remove from heat, drain mixture well, then pour it all into a large ceramic or porcelain bowl and set aside to let cool.
  • When cooled, combine it with the remaining ingredients except the butter and the bread crumbs.
  • Use the butter and bread crumbs to lightly grease and coat a 9-inch pan, pour the farro mixture into it, and bake it in a 370 F (180C) oven for about 40 minutes.
  • This will work well as a second course, with a tossed salad.
  • Recipe adapted from Giada De Laurentiis' method of cooking farro and from a recipe in Luciano Migliolli's "Il Farro e le sue Ricette." Farro: Grain of the Legions Grano Farro has a long and glorious history - it is the original grain from which all others derive, and fed the Mediterranean and Near Eastern populations for thousands of years; somewhat more recently it was the standard ration of the Roman Legions that expanded throughout the Western World. Ground into a paste and cooked, it was also the primary ingredient in plus, the polenta eaten for centuries by the Roman poor.

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Reviews

  1. I had high hopes for this recipe, been to Italy many times, I like to try new Italian recipies, cooked with farro many times before. Followed the directions to the letter, except used pearled farro, never saw cracked farro in any store I shop in, used a 9 inch cake pan. The final product is so terribly dry, like there is another liquid that is missing in the recipe. Searched the web for a similar recipe for comparison, one on YouTube/cookingcompaniontv.com, calls for 6 eggs, 2tbsp.oil, 16+ oz. of greens, will try that one next, looks moister. Lucky I made a pot roast, putting some of the broth from that on the torta, made it moist enough to eat.
     
  2. Julesong, I was disappointed in this dish. I followed as directed,even making my own ricotta (388748), served it with a tossed salad,and some garlic bread. We had to add ketchup,on top. I did not want to do this,but this was to make it edible. Sorry,but this is my feeling. Not sure if I would even try again,if I do would have to add something to make it possible. Don.
     
  3. What a fun recipe for this wonderful Ash Wednesday. I only had 8 oz (1 cup of Farro) and good thing I did, as the filling was almost too much for my pie plate! Note that I used normal Farro and not cracked, followed the cooking instructions and it was a bit mushy in the end so beware if you use cracked Farro! I also subbed asiago for the parm with great results. I threw in about 1/4 cup fresh chopped spinach (another great addition), nixed the nutmeg (not a fan) and subbed the salt/pepper for some Greek seasoning. Next time I will definitely use 4 eggs, as it completely crumbled apart on our plates. . .thinking the extra egg would hold it together.
     
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Tweaks

  1. What a fun recipe for this wonderful Ash Wednesday. I only had 8 oz (1 cup of Farro) and good thing I did, as the filling was almost too much for my pie plate! Note that I used normal Farro and not cracked, followed the cooking instructions and it was a bit mushy in the end so beware if you use cracked Farro! I also subbed asiago for the parm with great results. I threw in about 1/4 cup fresh chopped spinach (another great addition), nixed the nutmeg (not a fan) and subbed the salt/pepper for some Greek seasoning. Next time I will definitely use 4 eggs, as it completely crumbled apart on our plates. . .thinking the extra egg would hold it together.
     

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<p>It's simply this: I love to cook! :) <br /><br />I've been hanging out on the internet since the early days and have collected loads of recipes. I've tried to keep the best of them (and often the more unusual) and look forward to sharing them with you, here. <br /><br />I am proud to say that I have several family members who are also on RecipeZaar! <br /><br />My husband, here as <a href=http://www.recipezaar.com/member/39857>Steingrim</a>, is an excellent cook. He rarely uses recipes, though, so often after he's made dinner I sit down at the computer and talk him through how he made the dishes so that I can get it down on paper. Some of these recipes are in his account, some of them in mine - he rarely uses his account, though, so we'll probably usually post them to mine in the future. <br /><br />My sister <a href=http://www.recipezaar.com/member/65957>Cathy is here as cxstitcher</a> and <a href=http://www.recipezaar.com/member/62727>my mom is Juliesmom</a> - say hi to them, eh? <br /><br />Our <a href=http://www.recipezaar.com/member/379862>friend Darrell is here as Uncle Dobo</a>, too! I've been typing in his recipes for him and entering them on R'Zaar. We're hoping that his sisters will soon show up with their own accounts, as well. :) <br /><br />I collect cookbooks (to slow myself down I've limited myself to purchasing them at thrift stores, although I occasionally buy an especially good one at full price), and - yes, I admit it - I love FoodTV. My favorite chefs on the Food Network are Alton Brown, Rachel Ray, Mario Batali, and Giada De Laurentiis. I'm not fond over fakey, over-enthusiastic performance chefs... Emeril drives me up the wall. I appreciate honesty. Of non-celebrity chefs, I've gotta say that that the greatest influences on my cooking have been my mother, Julia Child, and my cooking instructor Chef Gabriel Claycamp at Seattle's Culinary Communion. <br /><br />In the last couple of years I've been typing up all the recipes my grandparents and my mother collected over the years, and am posting them here. Some of them are quite nostalgic and are higher in fat and processed ingredients than recipes I normally collect, but it's really neat to see the different kinds of foods they were interested in... to see them either typewritten oh-so-carefully by my grandfather, in my grandmother's spidery handwriting, or - in some cases - written by my mother years ago in fountain pen ink. It's like time travel. <br /><br />Cooking peeve: food/cooking snobbery. <br /><br />Regarding my black and white icon (which may or may not be the one I'm currently using): it the sea-dragon tattoo that is on the inside of my right ankle. It's also my personal logo.</p>
 
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