It's Wednesday. You Know What That Means

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The New York Times Food Section. Every Wednesday it quietly sings its siren's song to me from outside the apartment door, luring me out of bed with an extra incentive to face the day.

Will Pete Wells eviscerate Guy Fieri again? Will Melissa Clark revolutionize the way that I think about asparagus again? What heartbreaking restaurant closure will FloFab reveal?

The week of the Lopate challenge, it was Martha Rose Shulman's "Recipe for Health" that sang to me and launched me into being much more serious and aggressively creative with what I was making for lunch. I loved the idea of making a cherry salad, but the bulgur in Martha's inspired recipe for Cherry Tabbouleh definitely wasn't going to be substantial enough to stand alone for lunch. So I called in an old friend for reinforcement; farro. 

This recipe is incredibly easy to assemble, especially if you've already cooked farro for the week. It's all ingredient prep, which, for your personal edification, I have elaborated on extensively. Using fresh herbs is definitely not as easy as dried but it's essential. It tastes so much better and is at least 1/4 of the price. Chopping the herbs and pitting the cherries takes a bit of work (and patience) but shouldn't take you longer than 10-15 minutes, which, if you haven't cooked it already, is easily achieved while you cook the farro.   

"I Ran This Morning" Cherry Farro Salad

Makes 2-3 decent sized servings

1 cup cooked farro

1 1/4 cups finely chopped fresh parsley 

1/4 to 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh mint

A lot of sweet cherries (Bing are easy to find and taste delicious) pitted and halved 

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup of shelled pistachios, chopped 

Let's start with the herb prep. The first rule of fresh herbs, which can be a bit of a shock, is that you need WAY more than you think to get the quantities you need once they are chopped. The second rule of fresh herbs is that you only use the leaves. Whatever you are chopping, remove the leaves and discard the stems. 

So the parsley. You'll probably want to chop up the full bunch that you bought at the store. That should be about 1 1/4 cups. The mint you'll probably want to chop the whole package you bought as well.

Now, the cherries. I won't sugarcoat it. Cherries are a pain in the ass to pit. But they are delicious. So suck it up. Plus I have a hack for you! I can't remember where I read this but go grab a chopstick. I'm sure you have an extra set from the old days (last week) when you used to buy deli sushi for lunch... 

Remove the stem of the cherry and the use the chopstick to push down on the indent where the stem was and gently coax the pit out the other end of the cherry. Congratulations. You have pitted a cherry and didn't have to spend $15 on a piece of equipment (a cherry pitter) that you'll use seldom and will just take up valuable real estate in your kitchen.

Pit as many cherries as you feel like. I wanted a LOT of cherries but it's up to you how fruity you are feeling. After you're done pitting, halve the cherries. Or dice them. Or leave them whole. Whatever you feel like. Primarily an aesthetic and textural decision.    

Finally, the pistachios. Frankly, you don't even have to chop them if you don't want to. Again aesthetics. So if your wrist is feeling worn down skip straight ahead to assembly. 

Now that all your prep is done, let's throw this bad boy together in about 2 minutes. Pull down a large mixing bowl and pour in the cup of cooked farro. Add the herbs, and cherries and mix. Then add the lemon juice, olive oil, some salt to taste, and the pistachios. Toss again. The farro absorbs the liquid in the dressing really well and doesn't get soggy so this will keep for a few days.        

Experience cherry jubilee.