A different type of Italian Flatbread

Farinata is a simple, low calorie and full of protein dish made out of chickpeas flour. Its origins are from Genova, a city located in Liguria, the most north-west Italian region which is at the Mediterranean coast. Usually, in this region Farinata is served with salt and pepper, but recent generations like it also with ham and cheese as well.

Ingredients for 1 rectangular tray:

• 900 ml water
• 50 gr oil olive
• 300 gr chickpeas flour
• 10 gr salt

Process:

1. First put the flour in a bowl then slowly add the water (room temperature). While doing this, make sure to always mix with a whisk the mixture so that no bubbles of flour will form.
2. Once you finished adding all the water, put a kitchen towel on the bowl and let it sit from 4 to 10 hours.
3. After the resting time, remove the top foam that has formed on top of the dough with a spoon. Then add the oil and salt and mix everything together.
4. Preheat the oven to 250°C.
5. Next, add some oil at the bottom of the baking tray, this will prevent the dough to stick to the baking tray. Now pour a thin layer of the mixture (2 cm high) in the tray.
6. Bake at 250° for 10 min on the bottom of the oven. After 10 minutes shift the baking tray in the middle position of the oven and let cook for 10-15 min until the top part will be golden-brown coloured (See image 1).
7. Serve with salt and pepper.

Variants:

• Instead of serving it with salt and pepper, you can serve it with melting cheese and ham on top or with some slices of tomatoes.
  
• Red Lentils Flour Farinata
  Instead of using chickpea flour, you can use red lentil flour with the following proportions:
  • 150 gr red lentil flour
  • 450 gr water
  • 50 gr olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon of rosemary
  • salt and pepper
    The process to follow is the one described in the recipe above
    

Gallery

• Image 1 Farinata in the baking tray

• Image 2 Farinata in the plate served with Spinach

• Image 3 Slices of Farinata