Farro

Farro seems newly fashionable, but, in fact, it is an ancient grain. Originally served as cereal and called puls, it nourished the soldiers and others of the Roman Empire. It was difficult to grow, however, and produced only small yields. As newer wheat varieties emerged and proved more rewarding to harvest, the cultivation of farro gradually faded. It never disappeared fully from the Italian table, but it was little seen outside Tuscany and the Abruzzo until the mid-1980s, when a number of farmers in the two regions recognized its nutritional and culinary merits and began growing it on a larger scale.