Cecina: A Chickpea "Pizza" - Recipe #2

Tonight, I tried another cecina recipe. In case you missed my first post in this series, "Cecina," alsmo known as "farinata" and as "socca" in Provence, is a wheat-free flat-bread made with chickpea flour.

Here's the second recipe, followed by what we thought of it.

Cecina

• 1 cups of Chickpea Flour (also called Garbanzo Flour)
• 2 cups Water
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Additional Olive Oil for the pan

Mix the batter (it is very watery) and let set for 2-4 hours.  [Note: your combining the water, chickpea flour, and 2 tsp of olive oil. Mix until there are no lumps, then cover the bowl.]

Fire your oven to 400° so that it is hot and ready for fire-in-the-oven cooking. This is a good brick oven recipe because it cooks best with top and bottom heat.

[I assume the recipe means 400 °F.]

Pour a liberal amount of oil in a baking sheet with 1" (or so) sides. Add enough batter to make a 1/4" - 1/2" thick flatbread, and bake at 400° for 10 minutes. It should be brown on top. Cut and drizzle with olive oil, and serve immediately.

[I used my one-rack upper oven on my 2-oven stove. Because the upper burners in that oven don't turn on when you bake, after the 10 min. were up, I set the oven to broil at 400 °F for 2 min to brown the top. It worked well.]

My additions:

I liberally-sprinkled the cecina with kosher salt. Then, I dusted one half of the cecina with our favorite ingredient, Smoked Spanish Paprika.

I found this one blander than the first. Next time, I'd add a tablespoon of the Smoked Spanish Paprika, and maybe a half-teaspoon of tumeric, to the batter itself. I'd also use a half-sheet pan instead of the round 12" pizza pan. That would make it a bit thinner (more like 1/8"-thick), which is how I remember what my father made.

Hmm… I think that topping the cecina with some rosemary during my last 2-min broil would also be nice.

epinoid's verdict? He liked it much better than the first one. It didn't have the "off flavor" he noticed in the first one. [I think that flavor was the dried basil I used.]