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Carey,
I am so pleased you are writing about one of the most ancient recipes of my region, Puglia! "Grano" is really one the fundamental ingredients of our Mediterranean cuisine. In my family we eat the Grano at least twice per week!
The traditional way of preparing the Grano was to cook it for many hours in a big clay pot placed in the fireplace...I still remember my Nonna (Grandmother) preparing it! Now almost nobody does it this way anymore!
I confirm the most authentic way we eat it is just with raw extra virgin olive oil (you need a good one!).
Then there are so many other ways which vary from town to town (and sometimes also from family to family in the same small town....we like variety!).
You can have it with fried durum wheat bread; or octopus; or mussels (this is excellent!).
I have a favorite recipe which I call the "Garden Grano Stampato" (which works very well in the summer).
To cook the grano, boil it in abundant water for about 2 hours. Drain the water and then cook it again in abundant and salted water for other 2 hours until it turns white (this is a different preparation than Carey's Grano Stampato with olive oil).
Cut 5 ripe cherry tomatoes, add 2 tbs of capers (the small ones!), 1 garlic clove (chopped), a pinch of salt, 3 tbs of extra virgin olive oil, half chily pepper, a pinch of oregano and lots of chopped wild rocket.
Add the grano only when it is very cold.
It's delicious!