We've become enamored of whole grains this past year, especially chewy, nutty grains like spelt. These aren't as common as barley, oats, and corn, but we love their texture and versatility in grain salads. We had some confusion, though, about whether farro and spelt were the same thing. Turns out - nope!
In Heidi Julavits' piece for the New York Times Sunday Magazine last weekend she explained how she tried to substitute spelt for farro, with unpleasant results.
Farro cooks in about 45 minutes; we cooked our spelt for four hours, and even then the result was extremely al dente. We threw in multiple sticks of butter, gallons of stock and $13 worth of grated Parmesan, but the spelt remained stoically flavor-impervious.
And yet the misperception that these two grains are identical in flavor and usage persists. It doesn't help that the Italians often call them by interchangeable names. But they are only cousins - not siblings - and they are different in gluten content, texture, and taste. That al dente quality of spelt is what makes us love it in grain salads, while farro is much better for risotto-like soft hot dishes.
• Read the Julavits piece: Grain Exchange
Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen also sets the record straight with her recipe for Farro with Mushrooms and Thyme. Yum!
Do you ever cook with farro or spelt? How do you like to use them?
Related: Good Grains: What Is Spelt?
(Images: Flickr member m kasahara and Flickr member nadja.robot licensed for use under Creative Commons)
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Well! That explains a lot, actually. I had a recipe that called for Farro and I couldn't figure out what it was. Finally came across something that said it was spelt. Which I also couldn't find. Came across something else that said barley made a much better sub for Farro than did normal wheat so that's what I did. It turned out acceptably.
But how is farro spelt?
=D
actually, the things are even more complicated :)
In Italian 'farro' indicates *three* species of grain:
- Triticum monococcum = einkorn wheat, one of the most ancient cultivated species of wheat;
- Triticum dicoccon= emmer wheat, what is usually sold as 'farro' also in the US, it is the ancestor of durum wheat. The Bible and Classical Greek and Latin literature often mention it, since it was one of the most commonly cultivated wheat, in English it has been usually and erroneously translated as spelt but spelt was not common in the Meditterannean region at the time (here it is where all the misunderstanding started);
- Triticum spelta = spelt (also called 'spelta' in Italian), which was domesticated later and in another region (North from the Black Sea), it became then common mostly in central/northern Europe but not so much in the Mediterranean. It is closely related to common wheat (although it's not clearly how, probably spelt originated twice in history).
I hope it helps!
A woman at my farmer's market grows and sells emmer wheat and products--she is a true believer, says that hers is the true original strain. Her cookies are yummy--and expensive.
I just posted on farro - http://pearoo.com/post/41295621771/simple-farro-and-veggies-recipe#content - and before I did the research, was convinced it was aka spelt. I linked the readers back to your post :) Thanks!