Savory Farro Tart...

We've been asked a few times if we're still keeping up with our weekly Friday Night Pizza. Yes, absolutely! However, they just haven't been new recipes - Jeff has been going down the extraordinary large list of pizzas we've already made and picking out favorites to make again. Tonight we're planning to make that Roasted Garlic Pizza we first made in '08!

Instead of just rambling about that, let's get to a new dish we made! Remember that giant bag of farro we bought at Costco several months ago? Well, we finally worked our way down to the bottom of the bag and used the last cupful of it to make this Savory Farro Tart we had for dinner recently.

Depending on the kind of farro you use, you'll need to adjust the initial cook time for this nutritious grain. If using "semi-pearled", which is what we bought, it should only take roughly 15 minutes to become tender. "Whole" farro (with the hull retained) will take closer to 45. As I mentioned in the post I linked to, we've only come across the first variety, but you may want to double check what you have just so there are no surprises!

A mess of ricotta becomes the base to this tart, spiked with garlic-y melted butter, the cooked-to-tender nutty farro, a couple rich egg yolks and a whole egg, Parmigiano-Reggiano, smoked mozzarella, parsley, fresh grated nutmeg and crushed red pepper. The original recipe didn't have any smoked mozzarella in it, but we had a cube left in the refrigerator from another recipe and thought it might work out well here - it did! If you'd like to add a bit more color to the tart, I bet adding a bit of spinach would work well, especially with the nutmeg - you could either use fresh and quickly wilt it down in the farro cooking liquid, or go the easy route and use thawed frozen spinach, with any excess liquid thoroughly squeezed out.

There isn't a traditional pastry crust, but to give the outside a little boost (and help with release!), the pie plate is buttered and coated with a spoonful or two of fine dry breadcrumbs before the enlivened ricotta is smoothed into place. Stashed in the oven to bake, you'll want to let this go until the center just barely feels set and the top has taken a pale golden hue. This tart does need to cool before you dish it out - it won't have to cool completely, but it may be hard to get out slices if you serve it pipping hot. We let it rest until it was warm to the touch - this took about 15 or 20 minutes.

Kind of like a savory cheesecake, studded with pearls of chewy farro, we found this creamy tart to be quite hearty at six servings - there was definitely a wash of comfort that came over us as this filled up our bellies. Since this has a very open profile, don't be shy with playing around with the cheeses and fresh herbs - parsley was nice, but think about combining it with basil or fresh thyme for variety.

Recipes
Savory Farro Tart