30 Insalata di Farro: Asparagus and Wheatberry Salad A couple of weeks back Dominus and I attended a cooking demonstration class at Tosca restaurant downtown. The chef there, Cesare Lanfranconi, formerly of Bice’s and other places, conducted the class and prepared the resulting meal. We all (10 of us) watched. The class was loads of fun and the food was great. The theme was Tuscany. Chef made a wheatberry salad he said typical of Tuscany. I made this at home and then adapted the leftover salad for Asparagus Fest. The salad alone is very tasty and unusual and I highly recommend it. When “dressed up” with the asparagus as follows it makes a very elegant and delicious first course. Obtain: (to serve 8 - 10 as a first course with leftovers) 2 lbs wheatberries 2“ thick piece of pancetta or (better yet) the heel from a prosciutto ham ingredients for a bouquet garni as described below 4 - 6 ripe plum tomatoes A clove or 2 of garlic minced 2 clutches of fresh basil, or more,  julienned EVOO S&P to taste Proceed: 1. Soak the berries overnight in water to cover to 2 - 3 inches 2. Prepare a bouquet garni: Securely wrap a clean carrot, a celery stalk, a peeled onion, a few cloves of crushed garlic, fresh rosemary, fresh sage and the pancetta/prosciutto in a large piece of cheese cloth 3. Bring the berries and their soaking water plus the bouquet to a boil in a large pot of water to cover to 2 inches or so. 4. Simmer the berries at a low boil for about 1-1/2 hours. Drain and cool. Reserve the pancetta/prosciutto and cut some of it into dice to add to the salad if desired. Discard the rest of the bouquet. 5. Seed the tomatoes and chop to the size of the berries 6. Julienne the basil, mince the garlic 7. Toss all ingredients, including the meat cuttings if desired, with EVOO, S&P to taste 8. Let stand for at least an hour for the flavors to meld 9. Serve at room temperature This makes a lovely, aromatic and nutty flavored grain salad. It keeps well and the leftovers are as good as fresh. Use a very high quality EVOO. The aroma and flavor of the oil are a flavorful addition to this dish. For the asparagus minded: 1. Select 4 pinky-thin and very pretty asparagus per serving. 2. Remove and discard any woody ends or reserve to stock. The spears should be about 6” long at this point. 3. Boil the spears in salted water until just tender. Immediately stop cooking with a cold or icy water bath. Drain. 4. Trim the spears to about 4“ length, more or less, reserving the butt ends for the salad in a later step. 5. Split the spears lengthwise from just below the tip all the way to the end. 6. Using 4 spears per salad plate, pull the ”legs“ of the split spears apart and arrange them interleaved so as to form the sides of a square with the tips as the corners of the square. You may need to trim the spears a bit shorter to fit on your plates. 7. Chop the reserved ends of the spears into small bites. Toss the bites in a lemon mustard vinaigrette. 8. Place a mound of wheatberry salad in the center of each asparagus square. Place the dressed asparagus ends around the perimeter of the square. You can do several things to enhance and enlarge the rather small salad of dressed asparagus ends: add chopped red pepper, chopped plum tomatoes, capers, bits of nicoise olives, herbs, chopped anchovies, bits of hard boiled egg, all of the above, etc. This is an elegant presentation that is very pleasing to the eye and to the palate. Serve with a crisp, dry white wine, such as an Albariño, chilled. Sante! Tom