Farro Salad with Olives, Walnuts and Pecorino

This big-flavored farro salad was my contribution to a beautiful Easter spread with friends this year. It’s a favorite farro salad variation I’ve returned to for many years, and one I included it in my Near & Far cookbook. The ingredients are quirky and unexpected – wild amounts of pitted green olives, plenty of toasted walnuts, scallions, honey, olive oil, and something sweet like yellow raisins or dates alongside semi-pearled farro. I made four times the recipe below for Sunday. Leftovers are perfection tossed with some arugula and topped with a simple fried or poached egg.

Contents

The Ingredients: Farro Salad with Olives, Walnuts & Pecorino More Farro Recipes More Salad Recipes

The Ingredients: Farro Salad with Olives, Walnuts & Pecorino

A few thoughts on key ingredients.

Farro: After years of experimenting, I always buy semi-pearled farro for this salad. The pearling process takes away some of the outer bran layer. You end up with a chewy, nutty grain that softens nicely while still holding its structure. Farro packaging uses a range of terminology, just look for semi-pearled or pearled. I often see this type of farro in Italian groceries, in bulk bins, or in the Italian section of markets (near pastas or pasta sauces). It takes about 10-15 minutes to cook.
Olives: In my original headnote I noted “massive Sicilian Castelvetrano olives are my choice here, but any great-tasting green olives will do – Cerignola, Lucques, or Sevillano – preferably from an olive bar, not a can.” But I’ll be honest, I haven’t made this in years without Castelvetrano olives. They work perfectly with the farro and toasted walnuts and pair beautifully with sheep’s milk pecorino.
Cheese: the finishing touch here is shaved pecorino cheese. I like to buy a mild textured (semi-stagionato) one that isn’t too young or aged too long – somewhere in the middle. It should be assertive enough to stand up to the other bold flavor in play, but not overly strong or salty. And use a good amount, I basically leave that up to you. As people dig into the serving bowl it breaks up into smaller flecks and clings to the walnuts and olives.
Chopped dates or raisins: You need a sweet component in this salad, and I tend to reach for whatever I have in the kitchen. This time I went with chopped dates, but golden raisins also work well. You could play around with dried cherries, or even chopped dried apricots.