Farro Salad [for every season]

We love solid salads. I think they are perfect to eat on their own but are also great with some spread like hummus or some fish for instance. The best thing is that most of the times we are able to make enough to have leftovers the next day!

Farro is a wonderful grain and you can find lots of recipes within the Italian cuisine. We also have a great farro soup recipe which we should write down soon as well. :) 

The best thing however is that you can basically make a base salad and add whatever is in season at the moment. When we were in Sardinia we made it with whatever we found in the local co-op: zucchini, green olives, rocket, parsley, parmesan

Recipe for 3-4 portions

• 200g farro (pearled barley also works if you find it hard to get your hands on farro)
• 2 small cloves of garlic 
• 2-3 medium zucchinis, chopped in rough pieces 
• 100g roughly chopped parmesan
• Two handful of green Sicilian olives, roughly chopped
• Medium bunch of fresh parsley 
• Small bunch of fresh rocket, roughly chopped
• 50g - 75g toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped
• 4-5 tbsp good olive oil
• Juice of half a lemon
• Salt & pepper 

Cook farro as described on package. Some farro can be cooked right away other has to be soaked over night. Check on the package it usually will tell you how to prepare it. 

Add olive oil to a pan and add roughly chopped zucchinis and fry them for a minute and add the chopped up garlic. Fry until zucchini pieces get a bit of colour. Put pan aside. 

Toast hazelnut in a pan, they contain so much natural oil, you can just put them into the pan as they are. Make sure you stand next to the pan as they burn very quickly. After they are toasted, put them in the blender and blend until they are roughly chopped. 

Add all ingredients into a bowl. Add roughly chopped parmesan, rocket and parsley and dress the salad with the olive oil, the juice of half a lemon and salt & pepper. 

You can make this salad all year around. Just the other day I made the same salad with mushrooms, radicchio, crunchy celery and feta or baked beetroot, pumpkin and feta. 

Enjoy!