Farro lacks essential amino acids, particularly lysine, and by coupling it with legumes rich in these substances such lack is compensated. You can cook it with just about anything (ideal with vegetables) and can be utilized in most dishes in place of pasta or rice. Almost all thick soups, until the beginning of last century (when pasta was not yet used), were cooked with cereals and among them farro always constituted the richest and most appreciated. It was also utilized for cakes, pies and other concoctions, what follows is an interesting recipe from the old book “il panunto Toscano”of Francesco Gaudenzio, a gesuit monk born in Florence April 12 1648, a known gourmand who moved from convent collecting local recipes and who finally compiled a volume that he himself described as “opus in which it is shown the ease of modern cuisine at little expense.”