This one pot farro recipe is slow-simmered with Italian sausage, cherry tomatoes, herbs, greens and finished with a sprinkling of pine nuts and Parmesan. Impressively easy to make and SO delicious.
Run, don’t walk, to grab the ingredients for this one. ♡
I fully give all of the credit here to Smitten Kitchen, whose famous one pot farro with tomatoes is the brilliant base for this recipe and has been a family favorite in our kitchen for many years now. Over time, though, we’ve found ourselves gussying up this side dish to turn it into more of an entrée, adding in lots of zesty Italian sausage (either traditional or plant-based, both work!), a few handfuls of greens (either baby spinach or kale), extra flavor boosters (veggie stock and more fresh basil), and a sprinkling of toasted pine nuts (for buttery flavor and crunch). And especially this time of year when juicy cherry tomatoes are in peak season, we find ourselves craving this farro nonstop. It’s just the best!
It’s incredibly cozy and flavorful and hearty, without feeling too heavy. It’s wonderfully hands-off once you have browned the sausage, since the farro and tomatoes will simmer together until perfectly tender. It’s super-easy to customize with any of your other favorite add-ins (hello, extra veggies that are hanging out in the crisper drawer, maybe a can of beans for extra protein, or a drizzle of cream for an indulgent finish…you name it). And of course, who can complain about just one pot to wash?!
Let’s make some farro!
One Pot Farro with Italian Sausage and Tomatoes Recipe | 1-Minute Video
One Pot Farro Ingredients
Before we get to the full one pot farro recipe below, here are a few notes about the ingredients you will need:
- Italian sausage: We’ve made this recipe with both traditional and plant-based Italian sausage and both are delicious! Feel free to choose whatever flavor of sausage (mild, spicy, sweet) that you prefer.
- Onion and garlic: We will sauté these along with the sausage to bring out their best flavors.
- Vegetable broth: You are welcome to use either veggie or chicken broth, which will add another layer of flavor to the farro as it cooks.
- Farro: I really recommend making this recipe with semi-pearled farro, versus pearled farro or un-pearled (a.k.a. “whole grain”) farro. Semi-pearled farro cooks in around 30 minutes, which is the perfect amount of time for the other ingredients in this dish to simmer too. If you only have pearled or un-pearled farro on hand, it can work too, but please note that you will need to adjust the cooking time for the farro and other ingredients.
- Tomatoes: I always use fresh cherry or grape tomatoes for this recipe, which are absolutely delicious this time of year.
- Herbs: I recommend using lots and lots of fresh basil, then we will also use a fine sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper and a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes for seasoning.
- Spinach: Fresh baby spinach or kale work beautifully here to add some greens to the recipe.
- Toasted pine nuts: Always love a sprinkle of toasted pine nuts on top.
- Parmesan: Finally, I highly recommend finishing each serving with a generous sprinkle of freshly-grated Parmesan. If you happen to have an extra Parmesan rind on hand, you can also toss it in the pot to cook with the farro.
Optional Recipe Variations
Here are a few other variations to this recipe that you are welcome to try:
- Add more veggies. We love adding whatever other veggies happen to be hanging out in the crisper drawer to the sauté, such as zucchini, carrots, mushrooms, eggplant, bell peppers, etc.
- Add beans. For extra protein, stir a can of beans (rinsed and drained) into the mix.
- Add cream. For a more indulgent finish, stir 1/2 to 3/4 cup of heavy cream into the dish before serving.
- Make it spicy. For more heat, feel free to double or triple the amount of crushed red pepper flakes.
- Make it vegetarian. As mentioned above, we’ve made this recipe with plant-based Italian sausage and it is absolutely delicious.
More Favorite Farro Recipes
Looking for more farro recipes to try? Here are a few of my faves…
One Pot Farro with Italian Sausage and Tomatoes
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
- Total Time: 55 mins
- Yield: 3-4 servings 1x
Description
This one pot farro recipe is slow-simmered with Italian sausage, cherry tomatoes, herbs, greens and finished with a sprinkling of pine nuts and Parmesan. Impressively easy to make and SO delicious.
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground Italian sausage (traditional or plant-based)
- 1 large white onion, diced
- 5 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
- 4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
- 2 cups semi-pearled farro*
- 24 ounces cherry or grape tomatoes
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- fine sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper
- 3 ounces (about 2 large handfuls) fresh baby spinach
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil, plus extra for garnish
- 1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
- freshly-grated Parmesan cheese, for garnish
Instructions
- Brown the sausage. Heat a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and onion and sauté – using a wooden spoon to crumble the sausage as it cooks and stirring the whole mixture occasionally – until the sausage is cooked and browned, about 8-10 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for 2 minutes more, stirring occasionally.
- Simmer. Add the stock, farro, tomatoes, crushed red pepper flakes, a few twists of black pepper, and stir briefly to combine. Continue cooking until the mixture comes to a boil, then reduce heat to maintain a low simmer (approximately medium-low). Continue simmering for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the farro is tender and most of the broth has been absorbed.
- Finish. Add the spinach and basil and very gently toss until the spinach has wilted. Taste and season with additional black pepper and salt, if needed.
- Serve. Serve warm, garnished with a sprinkling of pine nuts, Parmesan and/or basil as desired.
Notes
Farro: I recommend using semi-pearled farro, which typically cooks in around 30 minutes (versus pearled or un-pearled farro, which cook significantly faster and slower).
Source: This recipe was adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s one pot farro with tomatoes.
I had all ingredients for this recipe except the farro and parmesan. I motored on, replacing the farro with pasta and the parmesan with a bit of cream. Wow! I had no expectation that it would be so flavorful with just these few, simple ingredients. It was easy to put together in a rice cooker and totally delicious! Ali, how do you do it? Yours is the #1 place I go for any recipe. I hardly crack my cookbooks anymore because I’ve tried so many of your recipes, successfully. I’m always glad to get your emails and invariably, end up on your website. Thank you for so many excellent meals!
I SO want to make this recipe. However, sausage isn’t really our thing. What can we substitute? Lean ground beef, ground turkey, or something else? Thanks in advance!
Second time making this and so glad I did! Used farm fresh cherry tomatoes and added some fresh zucchini and yellow bell peppers. Upped the heat with spicy Italian chicken sausage and more red pepper flakes and my husband and I couldn’t stop eating it!!!!! Highly recommend this dish to everyone!
I was surprised with how good this came out and how easy it was. I added pepperoncinis that I saw on a similar recipe on another site and it was the PERFECT addition to add more flavor and some spice. ALSO FRESH PARSLEY IS A MUST! In the future, I may sub out a cup of chicken broth with a cup of white wine.
This recipe is a keeper. I used onion, kale, spinach, basil, and tomatoes from the garden. It has such good flavor. My husband loved it.
Wow. I wasn’t sure about this one, but I thought I’d try it, never having cooked with farro. It was delicious. Loved the way the sausage and farro melded together. It’s the dead of winter, and the tomatoes at the market weren’t great, but cooking them brought out the sweetness, and the result was perfect. I love a one-pot meal! And this has everything in it for a complete dinner. It could feed a lot of people, but you’ll want to keep going back for more–so maybe not :). Serve with a baguette on the side to sop up the small amount of broth that’s left after cooking.
Used premade trader Joe’s Genova pesto instead of basil since no one had fresh basil in December lol. Added a can of white beans, used pearled farro and added 2C of broth based on Packaging using 2 quarts (8C) per 1C farro. This recipe used 2C farro so I did 6C broth. Cooked in about 45min.
Delicious!!
Very tasty. I used toasted slivered almonds in place of the pine nuts. Didn’t have enough fresh basil so added some dried.
This one’s a keeper. The family loved it. VERY easy to make after work, too.