Farro con Verdure alla Toscana

Farro is older than Rome. The Romans paid their soldiers partly in farro, which is why salary comes from the Latin for salt and grain. In the Garfagnana, the mountainous region of northern Tuscany where chestnuts grow wild and the air stays cool even in summer, farmers have cultivated this grain continuously for three thousand years. They never stopped, even when the rest of Italy forgot about it in favor of softer, easier wheat.

This is not a recipe that calls for precision. It is a framework. The vegetables change with the seasons: zucchini and tomatoes in summer, cavolo nero and root vegetables in winter. What does not change is the method. You build flavor from the bottom with a proper soffritto. You toast the grain to awaken its nuttiness. You simmer it gently in good broth until each kernel is tender but still has resistance when you bite it. Then you finish with olive oil so good you could drink it.

Tuscan cooking has always understood that restraint creates depth. There is no cream here, no excessive seasoning, nothing to distract from the grain itself. What you keep out is as significant as what you put in.