Farro soup with prawns

Method

1. Make and cook the soffritto, following the method in the Skills section. Add the farro and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, so that it absorbs the juices from the soffritto. Add 1 litre of the stock and the tomato purée and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20–25 minutes or until the farro is cooked. Add a little more stock or water if the soup looks too thick. Taste the grains to check if they are soft; when they are, your soup is done. Season to taste with salt and a few generous twists of pepper. If you are making it in advance, the grains will continue to swell so when you reheat, simply add more hot stock or hot water as necessary to achieve a thick soup consistency.
2. While the farro is cooking, prepare the shellfish. Remove the heads from the prawns and peel off the shells (don’t throw them away – freeze them for making prawn stock). Cut a thin incision along their backs and extract the black veins.
3. Put a quarter of the soup in a blender or through a passatutto (food mill) and return it to the pan. Add the peeled prawns and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the shellfish is cooked through. Divide the soup between 4 bowls, sit a prawn on top of each serving and drizzle with a swirl of good extra-virgin olive oil.