farro

These early form of wheat is what the Roman legions marched on, made into a kind of polenta. As a health food, farro has come back in fashion, especially in Tuscany. The whole grains are cooked either in soups, or as polenta, or in salads, or milled to make flour for breads or pasta.

Farro is also used for ancient wheat, now identified by size:

farro piccolo (einkorn)

farro medio (emmer)

farro grande (spelt)

In Sardinia, su farru is spelt polenta cooked in beef broth flavoured with grandula (Sardinian guanciale), fresh mint and cheese.

In Friuli and Le Marche spelt is often called orzotto.

In Monteleone di Spoleto, Umbria, the local spelt is linked to the cult of St Nicholas, who in the 4th century brought a ship filled with spelt to save his native Myra, Anatolia from famine, a miracle that was somehow transposed to Monteleone in popular imagination. The spelt was traditionally made by the priest into soup on St Nicholas's feast day, 5 December, and given to all the children as they left school. Today the little village is proud of its Farro Cereale DOP, the only DOP spelt in Italy.