Socca

IMAGINE YOU’VE SPENT the day sunning on a beach on the French Riviera, and now you’re settling in at a sunny table in the market square. You’re parched, famished, and giddy as the waiter drops off glasses of chilled local rosé and a platter of hot, crispy, flat pancakes straight out of the nearby wood-fired oven. They drizzle on a generous amount of olive oil and beckon you to dig in. You take a sip of wine (ahhh) and then bite into your socca. It’s crispy, salty, rich, and smoky, with a center that’s almost creamy. The slightly nutty flavor is familiar and comforting. One slice in, and you already know you’re going to need more.

Don’t feel bad—I haven’t been there myself, either. But I feel like I get closer each time I put a bottle of wine on ice and make yet another batch of these surprisingly easy, delightfully irresistible socca. Also known as farinata, torta di ceci, or cecina in Italy and a close relative of fainá in Uruguay and Argentina, socca are a kind of pancake or flatbread made from a simple batter of chickpea flour, water, olive oil, and seasonings. They’re most commonly made by pouring a thin layer of the batter into a hot oiled pan and then baking them in a smoky, ripping-hot wood-fired oven until they’re browned and crisp.

Aficionados say you can’t replicate them at home (without the smokiness and high heat of the traditional oven), but having made many batches now myself, I’m sure happy I tried. I began trying to replicate the traditional method by pouring