After wasting almost the entire day sitting in my house (and answering pages), I’ve decided to do something somewhat productive by posting a new recipe. It was only after a text from my friend around 3:00 PM that I realized it was almost 80 degrees outside and that I had missed such nice weather! I then realized that all of these warm and cozy soup recipes that I’ve been holding on to will be pretty useless unless I post them now, while there’s still a chance that we’ll have a few cool days. If I post one of them now, I get to feel like I’ve accomplished something more than writing a few patient notes, napping, and watching DVRed Gilmore Girls. Today, I’m posting farro soup.
I’ve only had farro soup while on my honeymoon in Italy. At the time, we were visiting Lucca, a beautiful city in Tuscany that is known for its food. At Trattoria da Leo, I knew I was going to order prosciutto wrapped melon, one of my favorite things. I needed something else to go with it, though. I decided to order the farro soup, not really knowing what farro soup was. WOW. It was probably the best soup I’ve ever eaten! In fact, after a few “tastes” of my soup, Diran abandoned his fritto misto and basically took the bowl from me. I haven’t seen farro soup on a menu since then, but I had some farro and thought I could give it a whirl myself.
I will be the first to admit that I don’t remember the soup in Lucca tasting quite like this. My soup was good, but it was certainly different. That might be in part because I have no idea what was in the Italian version. It might also be in part because I used what I had, which wasn’t much at the time (soup is always my go-to food on days when I need to go food shopping). That being said, this soup was filling and pretty tasty, so I’m happy with the outcome. This soup is also vegetarian, so as you can imagine, I am pretty impressed with myself.
Enjoy! And, if you get the chance, go to Lucca!
Farro Soup
Serves 3-4
Prep time: about 10-15 minutes
Cook time: about 50 minutes
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 carrots, diced
1 12 oz can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup farro
Water
1 cup peas
Pour the olive oil in a medium sized pot over medium heat. Saute onion and carrot in the oil for 5 minutes. Add the beans, tomato paste, farro, and mix. Cover with water, add about 1/2 teaspoon salt and a pinch of pepper, bring to boil and reduce to simmer for 30 mins. Add peas, cover with more water, and simmer 15-20 mins. Season to taste.
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