Eating Italian Farro: The Mother of All Grains Grano farro, the original grain from which all others—rice, barley, wheat and rye—derive, fed the Roman legions during their conquest of the known world. Ground into a paste and cooked into a polenta called plus, it sustained Rome's poor for centuries. Farro fell out of favor because the grain is difficult to grow and yields are often low. However, in recent decades French chefs in top-ranked restaurants began using it in hearty vegetable soups and other dishes. Rich in fiber, protein, and B vitamins, farro provides health benefits that have made it increasingly popular worldwide. Farro's unique flavor, a cross between barley and wheat, makes a delicious hot soup when cooked in broth or drained like pasta and tossed with roasted vegetables and perfectly salty ricotta salata cheese for a delicious salad. It is also terrific in farrotto, a traditional farro risotto. Executive Chef Gianluca Guglielmi of A.G. Ferrari Foods offers two different ways to enjoy this ancient grain. Zuppa di Farro Farro and Sausage Soup (4 servings) Chef Gianluca Ingredients 1 hot Italian sausage, chopped 1 carrot chopped 1 celery stalk, chopped 1/2 onion, chopped 2 cups farro 1/2 cup A.G. Ferrari Foods Freschissima 7 to 8 cups vegetable stock salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. a hearty extra virgin olive oil freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano Instructions: In a large pot, combine the first seven ingredients and bring to a boil. Boil for 20-25 minutes, or until farro has reached the consistency that you like. Add salt and pepper to taste. Spoon into individual bowls. Sprinkle with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and drizzle with a hearty extra virgin olive oil. Insalata di Farro Emmer Wheat Salad (4-6 servings) Ingredients 2 cups farro 1 pound green leaf lettuce 1 red onion, thinly sliced 2 stalks celery, diced 2 cups Gaeta or Kalamata olives 5 Tbsp red wine vinegar 1/3 cup A.G. Ferrari extra virgin olive oil 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper Instructions: Boil farro for 20 to 30 minutes in a gallon of generously salted, boiling water. Drain farro and let cool. Combine vegetables, olives, salt, black pepper, vinegar, and extra virgin olive oil. Toss vegetable mixture with farro. Serve at room temperature with a bottle of sangiovese wine. Can be prepared the night before.   Touring Italian Throughout the year la festa (the party) provides a delightful glimpse into Italy's history and culture. Everything from a national holiday (festa nazionale) to a village saint's day to a harvest, whether of wheat, olives, or grapes, is a good reason for festevolezza (rejoicing), usually with parades, music, copious quantities of special foods and lively crowds. "Quando e' festa, e' festa!" Italians say, "When it's a party, party!" If you're heading to Italy this year, you might want to join in some of these festivities. Corsa dei Ceri (Race of the Candles), Gubbio, May 15 The stony, silent town of Gubbio in Umbria explodes into frenzied excitement every year as three teams of men run up and down its steep streets carrying Ceri, gigantic wooden constructions, each weighing about a thousand pounds and bearing a statue of a saint on top. The Ceri and the Corsa dei Matti (Race of the Crazy Ones, as it's nicknamed), may date back to the twelfth century, when Gubbio was miraculously spared from defeat at the hands of Frederick Barbarossa. Its citizens credited Sant'Ubaldo, who died on May 16, 1160, for its salvation, and the town has held a ceremony on the eve of his death since the Middle Ages. No one knows the exact origins of the Ceri, which are hoisted aloft by teams of twenty men who jog so fast that the saints on top appear to be running. The celebration culminates with La Tavola Bona, a banquet for 700 people, including the "crazy" Ceriaioli or candle-bearers. Festa di Sant'Erasmo in Porto Ercole, June 2 We never miss this celebration of St. Erasmus, the patron saint of our adopted hometown on the western coast of Tuscany. A carnival sets up rides and games along the picturesque port for several days, and there are concerts, foot races, and sailing regattas. The highpoint is a religious procession in which the local pastor carries the saint's statue out to sea. After the saint's miraculous re-emergence from the waters, a parade of lighted boats files back into port. From the hill above town the fireworks display seems more breath-taking every year. Sagra della Fragola (Strawberry Festival) in Nemi, second Sunday in June The volcanic soil around Lake Nemi south of Rome produces strawberries—including the scrumptious fragoline di bosco (wild strawberries)—renowned for their sweetness and flavor. At this annual celebration of strawberry season, women dressed in rustic costumes of bygone days sell fresh-picked berries with fresh cream or ice cream and strawberries in pancakes, milk shakes, and liqueurs. If you like strawberries, you'll love the chance to sample them in more ways than you might imagine. Festa dei Gigli (Festival of the Lilies) in Nola, first Sunday after the summer solstice Ever since the fifteenth century the residents of this southern town have been celebrating the return of the local bishop in the fifth-century after he liberated Nola's men, who had been enslaved in Africa. Nola's citizens came out to welcome him carrying huge bouquets of lilies. For centuries the people substituted a very heavy candle, which they lit in the city piazza. Today's gigli (lilies) have evolved into four-ton, 75-foot-high creations of wood and paper-mache paraded through the narrow streets by relays of 90 to 120 men as orchestras play and girls with tambourines dance. Festino di Santa Rosalia, Palermo (mid-July) Every year Sicilians give thanks to Santa Rosalia, Palermo's patron saint. La Santuzza (the little saint), as she's affectionately called, saved the town from the plague in 1624. The centerpiece of the elaborate celebrations has always been a triumphal cart—sometimes resembling an enormous fortress, sometimes a gigantic warship, once so opulent it was called "the little mountain of gold." Today's cart is a model of a seventeenth-century triumphal chariot, which looks, as author Carol Field puts it in Celebrating Italy, like "a great golden galleon set on a copper-colored seashell," pulled by six horses with an entire velvet-costumed orchestra inside. During the festivities Palermo drapes its streets in canopies of lights that shimmer like jewels. The major events are the procession of the triumphal cart to the sea on July 13 and a reenactment of the miracle of Santa Rosalia in the piazza of the Royal Palace on July 14, followed by a stunning gioco dei fuochi (play of fire) that draws thousands of spectators. Torta Dei Fieschi, (Wedding Cake) in Lavagna, August 14 Count Opizzo Fieschi wanted to demonstrate his great love for his bride, Bianca dei Bianchi of Siena, when they wed on August 14, 1230. And so he ordered a cake made with 4,000 eggs, 3,300 pounds of sugar, and 3,300 pounds of flour, frosted with 110 pounds of almond paste. The thirty-foot-high cake, shared by everyone in the town, testified to the immensity of his devotion. Every year the wedding is reenacted, with a different young woman as the beautiful bride. There are fencing contests, flag-throwing demonstrations, concerts, a candlelight parade with knights in costume, and—of course—an immense wedding cake. Men in medieval costume tote the torta through the town and hand out lottery tickets—blue for men, pink for women, each pair with a matching code word. The men and women must compare cards with thousands of people to find their match and qualify for a slice of cake. Ferragosto, August 15 The ancient Romans honored various gods, particularly the goddess Diana and the cycle of fertility and ripening, with month-long celebrations they called Feriae Augusti (Fairs of the Emperor Augustus). Now both a national holiday and the feast of the Assumption of Mary, the mother of Christ, into heaven, Ferragosto marks the height of the Italian vacation season. The entire country shuts down to celebrate—or to indulge in dolce far niente (sweet doing nothing). Italy's major cities empty at this time of year, and the expression "Ferragosto in citta' (the August holiday in town) refers to a rather sad situation. If you're staying in a seaside town or mountain retreat, you can join in low-key celebrations that typically include a church procession, a concert in the piazza, and fireworks. Sagra dell'Oca, (Goose Festival) in Mortara, last Sunday in September This festival in the province of Pavia commemorates a gastronomic innovation: the invention of salami made with goose meat. The annual tribute features a Palio dell'Oca (goose race), along with street entertainment and stalls where you can taste other goose-based treats, including Italy's version of a dish for which the French are famous: foie gras. Recommended reading: Field, Carol. Celebrating Italy. New York: Harper Perennial, 1997.