Cecina
AKA Farinata, Socca
This is a traditional recipe from Nice, but the same thing can be found in Italy as far away as Tuscany under the name of “Cecina”. Typically eaten as a snack or an antipasto. In Pisa it is also eaten in a sandwich of bread made from pizza dough, known as “Fritella con Cecina”. Around Livorno it is also known as “5 e 5” — because after WW II it was an inexpensive meal, the bread costing 5 cents, and the cecina costing another 5 cents.
Ingredients:
- 200 g gram (chick pea) flour
- 600 g water
- 1 tsp salt (2-2.5g salt per 100g flour)
- 3-4 tbsp olive oil.
Instructions
OLD: Stir the chick pea flour into the water, add salt to taste and leave the mixture to rest for 4 or 5 hours. Remove any foam that may have formed, stir well and grease the baking tray with extra virgin olive oil and pour in the mixture. Bake in a hot oven at 200/230° for about 20 minutes, checking that it sets and takes on a fine golden colour. Serve hot with fresh ground pepper to taste.
- Pre-heat the oven to a high temperature (230° C).
- Sift the gram flour. Add olive oil and salt to the flour, then stir in the water, taking care to avoid any lumps.
- Ideally, let the mixture sit for a couple of hours. Skim off any foam that rises to the top.
- Pour the mixture into a oiled pan (a dedicated 34cm tin-plated copper baking pan is best).
- Cook in the oven, turning on the grill, and placing the socca close to the grill.
- Remove from the oven when golden brown ~6-10 min.
- Slice into pieces and serve immediately. Add olive oil and pepper to taste.
TO TRY:
Heat the pan with oil for a few minutes before pouring in the batter.
Cook for 30” and then let it cool a bit to separate the Cecina from the pan.
NEW:
- Cook 20 minutes in middle of oven. (230°, no grill)
- Take out and separate cecina from the pan with a spatula.
- Slice into quarters and add a bit more olive oil on top and along the sides and cuts.
- Return to oven for five more minutes.
- Add the lardo, and put back in the oven for a minute or two.
600 g for 2 or 3 people.
For four people: a flat-bottomed copper baking tray and edges about 3cm high. 250 g of chick pea (gram) flour; 750 ml of water; salt and pepper.
www.casadellecartoline.it
Hints:
- be sure to sieve the gram flour before mixing in the water.
- for a crispier cecina, (1) add 2-3 tbspn oil to the flour before mixing in water, and (2) reduce the quantity to 200g gram flour and 600 ml water.
- if you can get your hands on it, add extremely thinly sliced lardo on top of the cooked cecina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lardo)