Recipes Summer Farro Salad 5.0 (1,968) 3 Reviews Marco Canora says you can swap in any starch—like bread or pasta—for the farro (a nutty Italian grain) in this recipe.A Lesson in Farro Canora simmers farro in water with sautéed onion, carrots and celery. The aromatic vegetables add delicate flavor to the cooked grains. Delicious, Quick Side Dishes By Marco Canora Marco Canora F&W Star Chef » See All F&W Chef Superstars Restaurants: Hearth, Terroir (New York City) Experience: Gramercy Tavern (NYC), Cibreo (Florence, Italy), Craft (NYC) What recipe are you most famous for? Ribollita, a classic Tuscan vegetable soup. Every restaurant in Florence has its version of it and like everything in Italy, you go to 10 different houses and you get 10 different versions. They all have a few things in common: black cabbage, bread, olive oil and Parmesan cheese. Every version I’ve ever had has those ingredients. I put the bread on top and form a crouton for a textural component. To really disperse the black cabbage, I freeze it overnight and crumble it with my hands. It breaks into a million tiny pieces and infuses the soup in a deep way. I learned that trick from Fabio Picchi at Cibréo in Florence. Ribollita is a very forgiving soup and even bad versions are good. Throw a bunch of vegetables in a pot, let it sit overnight and the flavors come together and it works. I’m a firm believer that this soup is better the next day and it’s more than the sum of its parts. What’s one thing everyone should know how to cook? For a neophyte cook, I recommend making a tomato and egg dish, it’s sometimes called uova al purgatorio. You make a very quick tomato sauce in a skillet, stir in an egg white and then poach the egg yolk in the sauce. Understanding that recipe and seeing what unbelievable results you get encourages everyone to cook more at home. It’s so incredibly sexy, tasty, fast and easy to execute. It delivers on the health, the flavor and the “wow” component of what food can do. What are your favorite cookbooks of all time? My favorite cookbooks of all time are Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking; and Giorgio Locatelli’s Made in Italy. What’s one cooking skill you want to improve? I’ve always felt inadequate when it comes to making sausages. I will admit that I haven’t spent a lot of time practicing or researching, but they never come out exactly how I want them to. They’re always a little too grainy or they’re too full and they burst or they shrink and the casing is saggy. It’s always been a problem for me, but my chef de cuisine is better at it than I am and I’m learning from him. What’s the best bang-for-the-buck ingredient? Almost everything tastes better with a squeeze of lemon on it, and that jolt of citric acid is like a universal salt. It amplifies anything you put it on, from a steak to a piece of fish to roasted cauliflower. What’s your current food obsession? Firm and briny Japanese sardines. My fish purveyor has recently got a line on big, spotted Japanese sardines that are almost as long as my forearm and it’s ridiculous how good they are. We’re cooking them in the restaurant, and they’re so beautiful I decided just to grill them and serve them with a wedge of lemon. What restaurants are you dying to go to? Asador Etxebarri, a famous grill restaurant in Spain where the chef makes everything on a wood-fired grill. I want to go to Manresa, David Kinch’s restaurant on the water, south of San Francisco. I follow him on Twitter, look at his menus and idolize him from afar. I’ve been dying to get to Brushstroke in Tribeca; I’m a huge Japanophile and I want to see what Yoshiki Tsuji’s all about. Do you have any favorite food souvenirs from traveling? I have these mezzalunas I bought at antique markets in Lucca, Italy. I have them hanging at some of my restaurants. For me the mezzaluna is the perfect symbol of my cooking philosophy, and my appreciation for traditional approaches and simplicity. What ingredient will be talking about in five years? I have no idea, but I’m constantly amazed at what becomes in vogue. I’m in awe of this current trend of ash, where you carbonize stuff and crumble it into purees. I think it’s gross. I don’t want to eat carbonized anything. I have very little interest in innovation and what’s cutting edge. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Updated on June 20, 2019 Print Rate It Share Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: © John Kernick Total Time: 30 mins Yield: 8 Ingredients 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 small yellow onion, quartered 1 small carrot, halved 1 celery rib, halved 12 ounces farro (1 3/4 cups) 5 cups water Kosher salt 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar Freshly ground pepper 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced 1 small seedless cucumber, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil Directions In a large saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil. Add the yellow onion, carrot and celery, cover and cook over moderately low heat until barely softened, about 5 minutes. Add the farro and stir to coat with oil. Add the water and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat until the farro is barely tender, about 10 minutes; season with salt. Cover and simmer until the farro is al dente, about 10 minutes longer. Drain the farro and discard the onion, carrot and celery. Let cool completely. In a large bowl, whisk the remaining 1/3 cup of olive oil with the vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Fold in the farro, red onion, cucumber, tomatoes and basil, season with salt and pepper and serve. Rate it Print