This dish combines two of my favorite pantry ingredients: farro and porcini mushrooms.
If I want to satisfy my porcini craving without spending much time on shopping and cooking,
this is what I make.
We need to talk about Farro because if you buy the wrong type, the results can be disastrous.
Farro is a variety of wheat and it’s available in 4 different forms: whole, semi-pearled,
pearled, and quick cooking.
Whole farro is unpolished.
This means that each grain is covered with a husk that is very tough.
It requires soaking overnight and a very long cooking time.
And even after going through all that, it will still be very chewy.
Whole farro might be good as a chewy addition to a salad, but not as the main ingredient
in a dish.
The farro you want to buy for my dish is semi-pearled or pearled.
This means that the tough husk has been removed.
Technically, semi-pearled should be polished less than pearled, but all brands use these
terms differently, so expect that some farro will cook a little faster and some a little
slower.
Quick cooking farro is pearled farro that is partially cooked, so it has a very short
cooking time.
It will work in a pinch as long as you adjust the cooking time, but will not give you that
lovely slightly chewy texture.
What’s so hard about buying farro is that it’s not always labeled with its type.
The only one that seems to be clearly and consistently labeled is the quick cooking
farro.
The good news is that most farro is sold in transparent packaging.
If the grains have uneven coloration, it’s semi-pearled or pearled.
See how this one has some spots that are brown and some that are a light cream color.
Don’t be surprised that some pearled and semi-pearled farro is labeled “whole”.
I am guessing that companies do that to make it sound healthy.
So if the package says semi-pearled or pearled, that will definitely work.
But if the package says “whole” you’ll have to rely on what the grains look like.
Measure out 2 cups of boiling water.
Add 20 grams of dry porcini, submerge them with a spoon, and let them sit for 1 to 24
hours.
What we are primarily after is the soaking liquid, not the porcini pieces.
Today my porcini are too dirty to use.
I just made a video about why I often throw away dry porcini.
It’s linked below.
Instead of dry porcini, I usually saute and add some fresh mushrooms for texture.
But if you skip the fresh mushrooms, it will still be a great dish.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Dice a few large shallots or one yellow onion.
Set a pot over medium heat and add 3 Tbsp of olive oil, the shallots and a generous
pinch of salt.
Cook, stirring occasionally until the shallots are translucent and golden brown.
Don’t forget to tuck them in after stirring because whatever is left on the walls of the
pot ends up drying up.
This will take 10 to 15 minutes and you’ll probably need to stir them every 3 to 4 minutes.
Our shallots look good and we can add the farro.
Stir it around for a minute until it’s thoroughly coated in oil.
Add a quarter cup of dry white wine and cook, stirring frequently until the wine evaporates.
If you can’t have wine, increase the water amount by a quarter cup.
To replace the acidity in the wine, you can add a splash of something sour like lemon
juice, pomegranate molasses, or vinegar, but be careful not to overdo it.
Once all the wine is absorbed, line a sieve with a damp paper towel to catch the grit
and pour the portini liquid through it and into the pot.
Gently press down on the mushrooms to get as much liquid out of them as possible.
Season with salt to taste.
Bring the pot to a simmer.
Cover and put in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes.
The oven can make all your risotto dishes completely hands off.
Isn’t it nice not to have to do all that stirring?
While our farro is cooking, let’s work on the fresh mushrooms.
The mushrooms I have today are cremini and shiitake.
We should probably talk about washing them since there are so many misconceptions about
that.
It’s perfectly fine to wash portobello, cremini, and button mushrooms.
You wash them, you dry them, and nothing terrible will happen.
I promise they will brown just fine.
The mushrooms you need to be careful with are the delicate ones like oysters, maitake,
and chanterelles.
They tend to absorb a lot of water, so it’s best to avoid getting them too wet.
Luckily oysters and maitake grow on trees and normally don’t need any cleaning.
The same applies to shiitake.
They are relatively sturdy and could probably be ok with washing.
But because they grow on trees, they are usually perfectly clean.
Chanterelles can be very dirty since they are wild and grow on the ground and unfortunately,
they are too fragile to wash under water.
Cleaning chanterelles is a serious undertaking.
I usually do it with a damp paper towel, a toothbrush, and a lot of patience.
Once your mushrooms are clean and dry, chop them up any way you want.
Don’t forget to remove the shiitake stems since they tend to be very tough.
After you chop your mushrooms, keep them separate since cremini will need more cooking than
shiitake.
Set a large pan over medium-high heat.
Add 2 Tablespoons of olive oil.
When the oil is hot, add the cremini, a pinch of salt and get your lid ready.
When your lid is nearby, add 1/4 cup of dry white wine and immediately cover the pan.
This steaming step is helpful for sturdy mushrooms like portabella, cremini, and button mushrooms.
This lets them release their water and shrink so that more mushrooms touch the pan.
The more contact with the pan, the more browning.
It also gets rid of their styrofoamy texture.
Give them 5 minutes, uncover, and if there is any remaining liquid, let it evaporate.
Mine is already gone, so I can add my shiitake, another pinch of salt, more oil and let it
all cook until all the mushrooms are brown.
The key here is not to stir too much.
Let them cook without disturbing until you get color and then repeat this process a few
times until more sides brown.
These look lovely.
It’s been 30 minutes since we put our farro in the oven.
Let’s see how it’s doing.
Taste it and if it’s not tender enough, return it to the oven until you like the texture.
I like to finish it with a couple tablespoons of butter, a grating of parmesan, and all
those sauteed mushrooms.
I don’t want to waste all the mushroom brown bits, so I’ll add a splash of water to the
pan in which I cooked them.
Just enough to cover the bottom, bring it to a simmer while scraping up the brown bits
and add to the farro.
Give it all a stir and don’t forget to taste for salt.
What I love about farro risotto is that it feels like a meal, while a rice risotto feels
like a first course.
I also love how forgiving farro is.
Rice gives you a very short window of opportunity for a perfect texture.
If you aren’t ready to serve it that minute, it will get too soft.
But not so with farro.
If I need to keep it in the pot for an extra 10 minutes, it will still be delicious.
Here are more very detailed culinary tutorials for you to check out and if you are ever in
the Boston area, maybe I’ll see you in one of my classes.