Something snappy and simple and different

Novelty is a good antidote to winter blahs so here's a simple sunny eat from the Mediterranean: a chickpea flour pancake. It's street food called Socca in the south of France from Marseilles east to the border, particularly popular in Nice. In Italy where it's wildly popular in Genoa and Liguria, it's known as farinata or in dialect as faina. In Tuscany it's known as cecina (made of chickpeas). It's also popular across the water in Algeria where it's known as karantita, made with cumin instead of rosemary and served with harissa, the Maghreb hot sauce.  

What you'll want to know is that it is extremely simple, very cheap, extraordinarily tasty and the perfect no worries food because it's gluten free, fat free, meat free, dairy free, nut free... . In other words, everybody can enjoy it.

Socca is a flat, crisp pancake meant to be eaten right out of the oven or while still warm.
It's so addictive you probably won't have to worry about leftovers as waste. It's a good appetizer to pass around while you plate up the main meal. It's a great after school snack or, perhaps with a side of yogurt, a healthy breakfast.

So if you're out of ideas and fresh vegetables right now, perk up with this pancake.

Socca is normally made in a 12-14" pizza pan. If you don't have one, use a well seasoned cast iron frying pan--one that will survive the heat of the oven.  If like me, your well seasoned metal pan is only 6-7", you can either half the recipe or make two separate pancakes one after the other. The 12" pancake will serve 8, or 4 if people fight for seconds. 

Socca/Farinata

1 cup chickpea flour
1 cup warm (130º) water

2 tbsp olive oil (good quality improve the flavor of the final pancake)
1-2 tsp freshly ground black pepper (do this to your taste)
1 tbsp dried rosemary leaves (Lightly crush with your fingers to release the oil)
2 tbsp olive oil for the pan
coarse sea salt to finish (to your taste)

Preheat your oven to 475º.  Put the cooking pan in while it heats so the pan gets very hot.

Sift or strain (push it through a hand held sieve) the flour so its fluffy without lumps into a medium size bowl.

Whisk in the warm water, constantly whisking to make a smooth batter.
Whisk in the olive oil and then the ground pepper.  Add the rosemary leaves.
The batter should be about the consistency of cream.

Cover the bowl with a towel and let the batter rest 15 minutes. You can let it rest for hours if you don't need it right away, no problem. Just don't heat the oven yet.

Carefully remove the hot pan from the oven and coat it with 2 tbsp olive oil, swirling to evenly distribute it.  Pour in the batter to make a crepe like pancake.

Return the pan to the oven.  Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the pancake is crisp and the top is lightly browned.  Remove from the oven. (If you want the top browner, just flip the pancake for a minute in the hot pan.)

Immediately sprinkle on coarse sea salt to your taste, slice in wedges and serve.

P.S. If you tuned in looking for the French onion apple tart, I withdrew it temporarily because I want to see if precooking the onions makes a better tart.