How To Make Socca: A Gluten-Free Chickpea Flatbread

Socca is a popular street food in Nice, France, and is often enjoyed as an appetizer with a glass of crisp rosé. In our own kitchens, this classic dish can be a go-to, any-time-of-day recipe. Learn how to make it by heart and it might just be one of those recipes that comes close to changing your life.

Socca is a traditional crispy flatbread from Nice, France, and as with many traditional dishes, there are a dozen different ways you can make it. You’ll most often find socca cooked street-side on fiery grills, where the resulting flatbread is coarsely chopped and served in a cone with a sprinkling of salt and pepper.

In the South of France, every home cook has their own technique for cooking the chickpea batter, but the ingredients are almost always the same: chickpea flour, water, and olive oil.

Socca is also known by the names of fainá or farinata (coming from Argentina and Italy, respectively), but they are all essentially the same recipe using chickpea flour, olive oil, and water — and all have a crispy, nutty flavor.

• Chickpea flour and water make the basic batter in equal parts.
• Olive oil helps give the socca a crispy texture.
• Za’atar is an optional ingredient that adds aromatic herbs (dried oregano, thyme, and/or marjoram, sumac, and toasted sesame seeds) to the flatbread.

Socca batter can be cooked on the stovetop like other pancakes or baked in the oven, but you won’t be able to mimic the smoky flavors of a Niçois(e) street vendor’s very hot grill without help from the broiler.

• Mix the batter ingredients.
• Let the batter rest for 30 minutes before cooking — this makes the interior creamy when cooked.
• Preheat the oven to 450°F while the batter rests, and then about five minutes before cooking slide a cast iron pan under the broiler and heat the broiler to high.
• The pan should get a little smoky while it preheats (Open a window or turn on a fan while you’re working on this step.)
• Then, slick the pan with more olive oil and add the rested batter.
• Broil the socca for about 7 minutes.
• The socca won’t rise, but the exterior will blister and blacken a bit under the broiler. You only need five to eight minutes of total cook time to set the outside of the socca but leave the interior creamy.

Chickpea flour is made of ground-up chickpeas. It’s full of protein, but no gluten proteins. It needs more time to hydrate than all-purpose flour, which is why most socca batters require a rest before cooking. Expect a nutty, beany taste with a delightfully toasty aroma.

Not that many years ago, you might have had to venture to a specialty shop to find chickpea flour, but these days most supermarkets sell this gluten-free flour. Some manufacturers label it garbanzo bean flour, but it can be also found under the names gram or besan flour at international markets.

Socca is a versatile dish that can be served in a variety of ways. Out of the oven you can slice the socca into bite-sized snacking pieces or into more substantial wedges for lunch or dinner. Here are a few ideas for serving socca:

• Serve it warm from the oven with some cheeses and cured olives as an easy appetizer.
• For a light and easy dinner, serve socca slices with a simple green salad and ice-cold rosé.
• Socca could easily stand in as a gluten-free pizza crust or as a replacement for the toast on your morning breakfast plate.
• Drench it in honey and pass it off as a dessert for your kids.
• Top it with fried eggs and a dusting of Parmesan cheese for a late lunch; the runny egg yolk soaking into the creamy, crispy bits will make you want to stop and marvel at the simple pleasure of life-affirming recipes like this one.