Heidi Swanson's Mostly Olive Salad, With Some Farro

Name: Heidi Swanson's Mostly Olive Salad, With Some Farro
Cuisine: Mediterranean
Ingredients: 1 1/4 cup whole or semi-pearled farro; 3 cup water; 1 pinch fine-grain sea salt; 1 pound fancy green olives (preferably Castelvetrano), rinsed then pitted; 4 tablespoon to 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil; 1 cup chopped toasted walnut halves; 1 bunch green onions, trimmed and chopped roughly; 1 bunch chives; 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes; 1 jalapeño, minced (seeds included or discarded, as you wish); 1 tablespoon honey; 2 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice; 1/3 cup golden raisins, chopped; 1 handful shaved pecorino or Parmesan, for serving; 4 drop ricotta, for serving (optional)

Instructions

The farro salad from Heidi Swanson's Near and Far is so appealing—made with walnuts, bunches of alliums, and golden raisins, all dressed in a sweet and acidic vinaigrette—that even a whole pound of olives (yes, a pound!) couldn't keep me, a former olive hater, away. In this dish, olives are not bits of shaved tire in a salad bar or petrified eyeballs with mysterious pits that no one knows what do with. Here, olives are briny in a soft and savory way, hefty, and hospitably green. The olives seatbelt the salad. In one olive is all of the richness, spice, sugar, and oil of the salad itself. In one, there is many! Just slightly adapted From Near & Far.

Updated at: Sun, 14 Dec 2025 00:14:18 GMT