Gluten-Free Socca

Why This Recipe Works

The biggest variables in socca recipes are the ratios of flour to water and the amount of oil. After several rounds of testing, we concluded that 11/2 cups of both chickpea flour and water is best. Olive oil adds flavor, and more is better—up to a point. Any more than 3 tablespoons of oil will make the socca greasy. (More oil is used for cooking the socca.) Traditionally the batter is poured into a cast-iron skillet and baked in a large, often wood-burning oven. This method produces socca with a blistered top and a smoky flavor, but it doesn’t really translate to the home oven. Instead of a crisp top, socca baked this way was dry and limp. After several more failed attempts, we ditched the oven and cast-iron skillet for the stovetop and a nonstick skillet. Up to this point, we had been filling the cast-iron skillet to create one large pancake. The ambient heat ensured the socca was cooked through. On the stovetop, however, the direct heat cooked only the bottom, leaving the top sticky and raw. And flipping the socca wasn’t as easy as we’d hoped. We solved this problem by switching to a smaller skillet and using less batter to make several smaller flatbreads. As an added bonus, the smaller flatbreads now had a higher ratio of crunchy crust to tender interior.