Socca. A thin chickpea pancake laced with olive oil. It is irresistible. When I came across this recipe last year, I’m not quite sure what impressed me to try it. But I did and can’t imagine not having this in rotation.

It is incredibly simple to throw together. Chickpea flour (aka garbanzo bean flour aka gram flour aka besan flour), olive oil, water, salt & pepper. That’s it.

Traditionally socca is a very thin like crepe that is served as street food. It is humble food that is not meant to be fancy in any way. This recipe veers a bit in the thinness department and comes out a little thicker than its street counterpart.

This gets baked in the oven in a pre-heated pan. Olive oil is involved. It’s not as much as you think.

The result is a golden, crispy edged socca that slides right out of the pan.

Up till recently I have always eaten this as is. Sometimes adding in onions or zucchini to the top. I wanted to make it a more substantial meal so I decided to add a bed of sautéed kale and green garlic on a quarter. And what is a bed of kale without a poached egg?

To read more about Socca, David Lebovitz and Mark Bittman have a couple of good articles.

Socca

Adapted from Je Mange la Ville

• 1 cup chickpea flour, sifted
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Place an oven safe 10 inch skillet into the oven and then pre-heat the oven.

Combine the sifted chickpea flour, water, kosher salt, pepper, and 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Whisk together.

Once the oven is heated, pull out the skillet. Be very careful as the pan is HOT! Pour the remaining 2 tablespoons into the skillet and swirl around. Then pour chickpea batter into pan.

Place pan back into oven and bake for 12 – 15 minutes. Till edges are golden and pulled away from the sides of the pan.

Gently shake the socca out of the pan and onto a cutting board. Cut into 4 wedges. Serve warm.

Serves 4 or 2 if you are ravenous like me