Time: About 40 minutes

Though traditionally made with cracked bulgur rather than farro, tabbouleh isn’t about grain. It isn’t about the crisp, tailored dice of cucumbers and tomatoes or the Mediterranean elixir of lemon and olive oil. Tabbouleh isn’t about the bright stab of mint or scallion. Tabbouleh is fundamentally about parsley. Not parsley as a prop, not parsley as an accent, but parsley as a star—the main ingredient in a chilled, quenching height-of-the-season salad.

Back in Jefferson’s day, of course, before farming had mowed parsley down to two picks—curly and flat—parsley could lay claim to abundant variation in flavor and leaf configuration and was treated like a salad green or an herb, not like a corsage. This was certainly the case in Lebanon, where tabbouleh grew up.

Today, for all practical purposes, choices don’t really even come down to curly and flat anymore—if you’re using parsley as an herb, it had better be flat-leaf. Curly parsley is springy and cute, easy to chop and slow to bruise, but it doesn’t have a lick of flavor. Save it for the prom.

Having downplayed the role of grain in tabbouleh, we’ll now go on record as noting that tabbouleh, in our opinion, is appreciably better made with farro than with bulgur. Grain is resident in tabbouleh for the purpose of drinking up outlying flavors. Farro performs that task roundly—with bounce and verve. Eating tabbouleh with bulgur is like driving a sedan down a long, flat road; eating tabbouleh with farro is like driving a sports car over a series of short, curvy hills—it’s just a lot more fun.

Equipment Mise en Place
For this recipe you will need a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan; a small, footed colander; a vegetable peeler; a large mixing bowl; a slotted spoon; a lemon reamer and small strainer; a small, sharp knife; and a sharp chef’s knife.

Ingredients
1/2 cup (3 ounces) Anson Mills Farro Piccolo
2 cups spring or filtered water
1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
2 medium cucumbers
3 to 4 medium ripe tomatoes, washed
1 clove garlic, peeled
2 bunches Italian parsley, washed, dried, and stemmed
1 small bunch mint, washed, dried, and stemmed
1 scallion, trimmed
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons juice from 1 large, juicy lemon
2 dozen small leaves romaine lettuce, washed and dried (optional)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Place the farro and water in a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer. Lower the heat and simmer very gently until tender, 20 to 25 minutes, adding 1/2 teaspoon salt halfway through cooking. Remove from the heat and let sit, undrained, until cool. Drain through a fine, footed colander and set aside.

2. Peel the cucumbers and trim off the ends. Slice the cucumbers in half lengthwise and scrape away the seeds using a small spoon (View Photo). Slice each cucumber in half lengthwise and each half lengthwise again, creating long strips (View Photo). Each strip will have a thin, translucent band of flesh that held the seeds. Holding a sharp blade parallel to the counter, trim that strip away (View Photo). Slice the filets into thin strips between 1/8 inch and 1/4 inch wide and then into a fine dice. You should have about a cup (View Photo). Turn the cucumbers into a large mixing bowl and set aside.

3. Stand each tomato on its bottom and remove the core with a sharp paring knife (View Photo). Cut the tomatoes into quarters. Place each quarter on its back and trim the seeds and juicy flesh away from the lower tomato filet by slicing parallel to the counter (View Photo). Discard the guts do you think we should say discard the juicy flesh here?. Scrape away and discard the seeds. Trim the edges of each quarter to make a trim, meaty rectangle (View Photo), then slice off the remaining rib of flesh so the triangle is flat (View Photo). Cut each tomato filet into thin strips (between 1/8 inch and 1/4 inch wide) (View Photo) and then into a fine dice (View Photo). You should have about a cup. Turn the tomatoes into the bowl with the cucumbers.

4. Cut the garlic clove in half lengthwise and smash it with the side of a knife, taking care not to obliterate it into several pieces. Stir the garlic into the tomatoes and cucumbers and set the bowl aside.

5. Chop the parsley. Grab a handful of parsley and bunch it up against the side of a chef’s knife, then slice the parsley into a fine julienne (View Photo). Repeat until all the parsley is chopped. Julienne the mint in the same way. Slice the scallion into thin rings. Retrieve the crushed garlic from the bowl and discard it. Stir in the herbs. Add the olive oil, lemon juice, remaining teaspoon of salt, and pepper. Toss to combine. Taste for seasoning. Serve straightaway with spears of romaine.

Serves 6 as a side dish