Why You Should Make Farrotto (Risotto's Wheaty Cousin)

It was a parmesan-mushroom risotto, eaten from a paper bowl at the busiest stall in the city’s famous Borough Market. It had a beautifully creamy consistency, unusually nutty flavor, and a tender chew. It was perfect.

But as it turns out, it wasn’t risotto at all. It was farrotto.

Farrotto is a risotto-style dish that replaces arborio rice with farro. If you aren’t yet familiar with this delicious and versatile ingredient, it’s an ancient grain that's been grown in Italy for centuries. It looks similar to barley, but farro is larger with a longer shape.

Using this whole grain instead of rice in risotto creates a more robust dish that still cooks relatively quickly and can work as a blank slate for any flavor—from cheese and herbs to meats and vegetables.

But when I came home from London and immediately tried to transform mushroom risotto into farrotto with a simple swap of the main ingredient, I discovered this was not enough. The resulting dish lacked creaminess and was almost crunchy. 

Here’s why: Farro has bran.

Arborio rice has been stripped of its bran layer and so it easily releases its amylopectin, the starch molecule that makes risotto creamy. But farro is still whole.

That gives farro great bite and earthy flavor but also traps the starch inside the grain. As a result, farrottos can lack cohesion. 

To create farrotto with all the lush silkiness of traditional risotto, Senior Editor Steve Dunn came up with a simple but clever technique.

His secret? “Cracking” the farro before cooking. Steve blitzes the grains in a blender until about half are broken into pieces. The escaped starch from these crushed pieces helps thicken the cooking liquid to yield a creamy, cohesive dish. The still-intact grains, meanwhile, contribute lots of chew.

He also adds most of the cooking liquid up front and cooks the farrotto in a lidded Dutch oven which helps trap the moisture to more evenly and quickly hydrate the farro—so you get a delicious risotto-style dish without the endless stirring. 

I love Steve's failproof Parmesan farrotto because it makes a delicious base for you to build your own version with any preferred mix-ins or seasonings. Try it and join me in the farrotto-convert club!