Socca - Recipe, Technique, How To?

[weinoo]

This weekend, I tried making socca, a street food specialty from Nice, 3 different times and I didn't like the way any of them came out.

Back when I was a student, Nick Malgieri made socca that was absolutely delicious - crisp, salty, peppery and oily (in a good way) all at the same time. So, I tried Nick's recipe - no dice. Then I tried Colman Andrews' recipe - not so good either.

And I'm wondering if anyone who has made it, or tried it in Nice, can tell me what a really good version should taste and feel like.

[markemorse]

This weekend, I tried making socca, a street food specialty from Nice, 3 different times and I didn't like the way any of them came out.

Back when I was a student, Nick Malgieri made socca that was absolutely delicious - crisp, salty, peppery and oily (in a good way) all at the same time.  So, I tried Nick's recipe - no dice. Then I tried Colman Andrews' recipe - not so good either.

And I'm wondering if anyone who has made it, or tried it in Nice, can tell me what a really good version should taste and feel like.

←

I went through a big socca phase a couple summers ago. The secrets as far as I can tell are: a very hot oven, good olive oil, and lots and lots of freshly ground pepper.

You have to make sure that your chickpea flour truly browns: undercooked chickpea flour is way gross-tasting.

The recipe I use is here.

Good luck!

mark

[Kerry Beal]

I also went through a big socca phase after tasting the good stuff in old town Nice. Never came up with one that satisfied me. I think Mark is bang on with the making sure the besan is well toasted and go for lots of nice brown/black bubbles on the top. I had not so good stuff in Nice too, and I it wasn't as brown and bubbly.

Mark's recipe looks like it should work - now where is that chickpea flour?

[weinoo]

I also went through a big socca phase after tasting the good stuff in old town Nice. 

←

So, Kerry, were the ones you tasted in Nice crispy and cracker like, or were they a little bit crispy on the edges and more crepe like?

[Kerry Beal]

I also went through a big socca phase after tasting the good stuff in old town Nice. 

←

So, Kerry, were the ones you tasted in Nice crispy and cracker like, or were they a little bit crispy on the edges and more crepe like?

←

Not cracker like - more like soft and flexible but with great crispy bits. Kind of like a cross between a crepe and good lavash or thin naan.

[LoneSavant]

When I was living in Genoa, we had the same treat (there it's called Farinata). I've always made it using the following recipe:

1 cup chickpea flour

1 3/4 cup lukewarm water

2 tsp kosher salt (or to taste)

2 Tbsp olive oil plus more for cooking

Whisk it all together, and let it sit for at least an hour, at best a whole afternoon. (I go through phases where I keep a juice pitcher of this in the fridge for a week, making Farinata every lunch).

Preheat the oven to 475, get a big cast iron pan or--better yet if you have one-- a really heavy sheet pan (oridinary cookie sheets prove a little too thin), dump a generous layer of olive oil across it, and stick the pan in the oven. When the pan itself has preheated, pull it out and (carefully) dump enough batter across the pan to loosely (with some thin/bare patches) cover it. Stick 'er back in the oven for anywhere from 8 to 15 minutes, depending on how brown and crispy you like the edges.

[markemorse]

LoneSavant's instructions sound like exactly what I do, except I use a standard cookie sheet.

[weinoo]

Preheat the oven to 475, get a big cast iron pan or--better yet if you have one-- a really heavy sheet pan (oridinary cookie sheets prove a little too thin), dump a generous layer of olive oil across it, and stick the pan in the oven. When the pan itself has preheated, pull it out and (carefully) dump enough batter across the pan to loosely (with some thin/bare patches) cover it. Stick 'er back in the oven for anywhere from 8 to 15 minutes, depending on how brown and crispy you like the edges.

←

This sounds like it could be the key...i may be using too much batter for my 1/4 sheet pans.

Do you use the broiler at all?

[weinoo]

Quick update - at hathor's place, I used a well-seasoned cast-iron frying pan, got it pretty hot on top of the stove, poured in some oil, a thin coating of batter, and moved it to a pre-heated 500 degree oven, and it came out beautifully.

I went with about a 2 to 1 ratio of the chick pea flour to water.

[joshlh]

Everywhere says this is Nicoise, but for some reason I didn't notice it there and only tried it in Antibes. What I had was delicious, but I have no reference point to judge it against. I posted in a bit more detail about this and the market in Antibes at NoshALot, but in short:

A thin layer of batter is poured into something like a family size pizza pan, and it's slipped into the mouth of a portable (!) wood-burning oven for a shy minute or so. It comes out blistering hot, browned and crispy on top, still moist below. You can have it liberally peppered and salted or plain, but the choice seems clear. It's so simple and surprisingly good that it sticks in your mind long after it's gone from your ribs.

As mentioned in another reply, it's definitely more crepe like than cracker like. A hot oven is probably a key requirement for duplicating what I tried. I'm pretty sure there's a lot of pizza-oriented literature out there about how to manage second best if you don't have a wood-burning oven at home .

Edited April 3, 2008 by joshlh (log)

[markemorse]

Going through another socca phase, and this time I'm thinking about coloring outside the lines a little bit, using socca as the base for a pizza-style creation. Has anyone done this, and if so, care to share any tips about when to add toppings?