When Indy and I were in California together, we stopped into a little cafe in a very expensive town (the town that it turned out would permit us to buy a one-room cabin with a ladder instead of a staircase). The sandwich that I got in that cafe – which was seventeen dollars and consisted of exactly what you traditionally find in sandwiches and not, as one might imagine, diamonds – should have perhaps indicated to me that we were in FancyLand, but I was less dismayed by the price tag of that sandwich than you might have expected, because oh the side salad that it came with.
Now, I recognize that food that you get in restaurants is generally good because it’s full of secret things like All Of The Butter, and is often quite tough to replicate at home. But this little side salad seemed to me to be just a whole bunch of pretty simple stuff mixed together, and so I took out my handy little notepad, jotted down the ingredients that I could see, and when I got home:
made it.
Oh it is good. It’s SO GOOD. Good as a side dish (I served it with roast chicken), but totally hearty enough to serve alone as lunch.
Farro Salad with Peas, Pine Nuts & Goat Cheese (serves 4 as a side dish)
What You Need:
1 cup farro
3 cups water
1 bag steam-in-bag peas
3-4 scallions, thinly sliced (light green parts only)
3 tbsp pine nuts
3 tbsp goat cheese, crumbled
Juice from 1 lemon
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
What You Do:
1. Combine the water and farro in a saucepan. Cover and bring water to a boil, then turn down heat and let simmer about 15 minutes, or until farro is cooked but still has a little bite to it. Drain out excess water.
2. In a large bowl, toss together the cooked farro with the rest of the ingredients.
