
Sprouted Farro (or Emmer) is an ancient variety of wheat with its own unique nutty taste and hearty texture. Farro may not be familiar to you, but farro risotto is a traditional Italian dish that can still be found on restaurant menus across Italy. Unlike risotto made with rice, which has to have liquid added in many intervals, this sprouted farro risotto has a much simpler method. While farro risotto is creamy, it is chewier and less starchy than risotto made with rice.
Toasting the sprouted farro with the aromatics really helps it to absorb the onion and garlicy goodness and brings out its naturally nutty flavour (it becomes very fragrant too – it smells kind of like popcorn!). It’s the same idea with allowing the wine to absorb before adding the other liquids, it really highlights the flavours. I chose a dry wine meant for cooking, but you can choose any dry white wine according to your preference and availability. You can also use regular broth (beef, chicken, vegetable, mushroom etc.) but I recommend low or no sodium broth so you can control the amount of salt; simply add salt to taste after adding the parmesan.