My first time cooking faro and a total success. This is a very simple, homey soup. Cabbage is braised with onion and garlic and rosemary until soft. Vinegar is added (I went with champagne vinegar--the bottle I happened to have open with just a bit left in it). Farro, sautéed in a little olive oil, is added as well, along with chicken stock (I had homemade). It then cooks till the faro is soft; some lemon juice is added and the soup is seasoned with s & p. It's ready to serve with some parmesan shredded over the top. The soup is thick and comforting and quite delicious. It also freezes beautifully and is easily thawed and re-warmed with the addition of some water and/or stock and wine.

This very simple spread is made up of an eggplant, roasted until it is totally soft, scraped into a food processor with colatura, vinegar, some peperoncini and olive oil, all of which is blended till smooth. You can add a squeeze of lemon if you wish. I scraped mine into a dish--it was sort of gray and unexciting. I covered it with plastic and tucked into the fridge. That was yesterday. Today, I took it out and dipped some pita into it. It's still not pretty, but it tastes so good. I think it's the colatura--magical stuff. Whatever--those hours in the fridge let everything meld in a mystical way so that this rather mundane concoction turned into a smooth, unctuous mass which is full of subtle yet surprising flavor. Very good stuff.