• Place the beans and farro in a large bowl, add 4 cups of cold water, cover and soak for 8 hours or overnight.
•  Drain the beans and farro in a large colander and place in a stock pot with 5 cups of cold water. *If you use filtered water here, you shouldn’t have to skim any scum from the surface of the water as the beans & grains cook.
• Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for about 1 hour, until the beans are just tender. Drain the beans & farro over a bowl, reserving the cooking liquid. Any liquid you don’t use in this recipe, you can use in any soup or stew to depth and flavor.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• While the beans & grains are cooking, chop the onion, carrot celery, garlic and marjoram.
•  Heat a large pan over medium to medium-high heat. Add the olive oil and let heat through for about 30 seconds. Add the chopped onion, carrot and celery, along with ½ teaspoon of salt and a few good grindings of black pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes.
• Add the garlic and marjoram and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Turn the heat off and add the Dijon, vinegar, beans & farro, 1 teaspoon salt and ¾ cup stock or bean cooking liquid, stirring to combine.
• In a separate bowl combine the bread crumbs, grated cheese, 1 Tb olive oil and fresh cracked pepper to taste.
• If you are the type of person who likes lots of crispy topping (you know who you are!) you can double the bread crumb topping and bake the gratin in a long shallow dish to maximize surface area. Pour the bean & farro mixture into a large dutch oven or gratin dish (or lasagna pan for the extra topping method). Coat evenly with the bread crumb mixture and place in the hot oven. Cook for 45 – 60 minutes, until the topping is golden brown and the gratin is bubbling at the edges.
• Let rest for 10 to 15 minutes (or longer if you like) before serving.

• Melt butter in a medium sauce pan. Saute thyme.
• Add farro and saute for a few minutes until butter is absorbed.
• Add 5 Cups of broth. Bring to a boil then turn heat to a low simmer uncovered for 45 minutes or until Farro has absorbed most of the moisture and is plump and chewy.
• While waiting for farro to cook steam parsnips until they are slightly soft (about 8 minutes) but not mushy. You want the parsnips to maintain their cubed shape.
• Cool parsnips in separate bowl.
• When farro is plump and a small amount of moisture remains in the sauce pan add Mascarpone Cheese. Incorporate on low heat until all of the cheese has melted. Farro and cheese mixture should be slightly soupy – not dry. Add a bit more broth if farro seems dry.
• Top with steamed parsnips. Serve hot.

For Caramelized onion stock

• Cut onions in half from pole to pole. Thinly slice them vertically, making sure to cut them a similar thickness. 
• Melt the butter over medium heat in a heavy bottomed pot large enough to hold all the onions. If a heavy bottomed pan is not used, the onions will burn.
• Add the onions, the balsamic and the salt. Cook slowly, stirring every several minutes until the onions have lost 70 percent of their volume. They should not be getting much color at this point.
• Continue to cook onions until they caramelize onto the bottom of the pan, scraping off the caramelized layer on the bottom of the pan completely. Repeat this process until all the onions have a deep brown color and are very sweet. Be very careful not to scorch the onions! This is very easy to do, and will cause a bitter, burned flavor. The onions should have a pleasing caramel sweet smell while cooking. If they smell acrid or scorched at any point, add a little water to the pan and scrape away all the caramelized bits on the bottom.
• When the onions are finished caramelizing, they should have lost 90% of their volume. Add the stock and bay leaf, and simmer for one hour.
• Strain out the onions. The stock is now ready for use.

Farro Risotto

• Over medium high heat, melt butter until it is browned and nutty smelling. Add the farro, sage and 1 tablespoon salt to the butter and stir occasionally for about five minutes. Be careful not to scorch the farro. This process toasts the grains and adds a nutty flavor to the farro.
• Add half of the onion stock, bay and thyme and bring to simmer. Stir occasionally until most of the liquid has evaporated.
• Add more onion stock ½ cup at a time, continuing to stir occasionally until the farro is cooked though. This will take some time. The amount of time and stock used varies drastically based on the size of pot used and amount of heat applied.
• The farro is done when the grain has no chalky interior when bitten into. A few of the grains may have split while cooking, but there should not be many. It will still be a bit chewy.
• To finish, in a pot larger than the volume of farro, melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium low heat. Add the vegetables and “sweat” them until they are cooked through. They should not caramelize.
• Add the currants and ¼ cup of onion stock. Cook for 3-5 minutes or until the currants are plumped.
• Fold in the cooked farro and stir well to combine. Heat through, adjust for seasoning and serve.
• To achieve a more luxurious risotto, fold in ¼ cup of butter into the risotto. This will give the risotto a silken coating and a velvety shine.