Farro Carbonara

I've been interested in farro because it basically wheat berries and because it is an old Italian food that predates Graham and Kellogg and the health food movement.  Wheat berries are appealing because they are whole grain wheat, but are not appealing because they seem to have no tradition in the foods I want to cook and eat.  If I substitute or add wheat berries to some dish, it really affects the dish.  It is really different from what it would have been otherwise.  Adding wheat berries seems to turn anything into whole grain breakfast porridge, which is nice sometimes, but not all the time.

But farro is the ancient Italian grain that has been cooked in whole form to make many (Italian) dishes.  So maybe I can use farro instead of pasta or arborio rice to make some Italian dishes that come out tasting right instead of like the breakfast of champions without salt.

So I thought I would try to make farro carbonara.  I've been all excited about carbonara.  Part of my interest in carbonara comes from my perception that people consider it more unhealthy than it is.  I've been swayed by Michael Pollan's claim that refined carbs are a bigger contributor to an unhealthy diet than moderate amounts of animal fat are.  Under this idea, whole wheat carbonara sounds pretty good.  Whole wheat pretty close to a balanced diet on it's own.  Adding a little bacon, eggs, cheese, and olive oil adjust it to a nearly perfect balance of macro nutrients.  Add some fruits and vegetables and you can live forever!

So, on with farro carbonara!

Ok.  I wanted appetizers, but I made the appetizer course healthy by shrinking the picture of the cheese.

 

Yes.  I just explained that this hundred-precent grass-fed sirloin steak is completely unnecessary and makes the meal decadent.  But I wanted some lean steak with our rich carbonara.
 

smeared with a little bacon fat.