Ligurian Street Food: Farinata

When I started this blog I thought maybe I should write an ode to the chickpea. I mean I eat them almost every day; by the handful, in salad, roasted in the oven until crunchy. Cheap, providing protein and complex carbs (fiber too), vits and mins, they are almost a perfect food to me. They make me wonder why they say it's so difficult to eat healthy when you have a low income. Beanth! So this recipe is the first foray into one of my dietary staples.

Here I utilize chickpea flour rather than chickpeas in whole form. It is available at Whole Foods or online in bulk. You can do a lot with it; mix into breads, or use it to coat things like shrimp and calamari before frying for a subtle nutty flavor you don't get from white wheat flour. It's also gluten free for an added bonus.

When I was in Italy I took a trip to the Ligurian coast where, propped against steep cliffs and little inlets are the Cinque Terre, or five villages. Picturesque little towns comprised of craggy outcroppings on which pastel colored buildings seem precariously embedded in the earth. There's very little road access so the most common ways of going between villages are the trains which cut in and out of the ocean cliffs, or on foot. There are trails that snake around the sea, abutting terraced olive groves and vineyards, rising and falling hundreds of feet from one town to the next. A unique place for hiking in Italy, and when hunger ensues there's a near perfect snack to fuel the trek to the next village.

During my short stay in Cinque Terre I woke up the first morning and smelled the aroma of olive oil heating up nearby. Upon further investigation I came across a little paneficio, or bread shop. I needed something for breakfast, and I knew it wasn't going to be eggs or cereal, more likely some kind of light sugary pastry, good enough for about forty five minutes of satiation. But the aroma which brought me to this place was coming from a large rectangular pan just out of the oven, something golden and glistening from an abundance of oil.

I ordered a piece of it by about yea big and got it served up on some parchment. Oily it certainly was, hot and slightly crunchy at first. I initially thought it might be some kind of crepe or something made with egg, but then I discerned a certain nuttiness and earthiness, the egg fading away to nothing. I ordered some more and when I found out what it was figured my ulterior motive for hiking all day would be to try the farinata in each village I could hit by sundown.

The thing I love about farinata is how simple it is; chickpea flour, made into a batter with water, a very liberal dose of good olive oil and some salt. Satisfying, cheap, eaten on the move, and something that shouldn't have any allure to people like us who have more food options in a given day than we know what to do with. But what was bare subsistence or someone else's trash is now intriguing and sought after by hobby eaters.

Makes 2 farinate in a 10" skillet

Ingredients:
2 cups of chickpea flour
2 2/3 cups water
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 sprig fresh rosemary, needles finely diced
1/2 tablespoon sea salt
Black pepper to taste

Equipment:
Flour sifter (optional but suggested)
Cast iron skillet. If you don't have one use a sheet pan instead

Pour the water into a mixing bowl and begin sifting the flour in while whisking until all the flour is incorporated and you have a non-lumpy batter. It should be thinner than pancake batter, like heavy cream. Let this rest at least an hour, as long as overnight--the longer the better up to that point.

Preheat the oven to 500. Put the cast iron skillet in the oven for 10 minutes, or a sheet pan in for 5. In the meantime, stir in the olive oil, salt, and rosemary to the batter.

Take out the skillet or pan from the oven and drizzle in a teaspoon of olive oil and roll it around to coat quickly, then add half the batter, which will sizzle and begin to set immediately, to a depth of no more than half an inch, preferably a little less.

Place it in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, until it has set and the top is a nice golden brown. Remove from the oven, de-pan, and hit with a copious amount of black pepper. Serve hot!

Repeat once to finish off the batter.

Pizza Two Ways: Grilled & With Potatoes

Since all artisan pizza is made in wood or coal fired ovens nowadays, grilling pizza is probably the best means to mimic that flavor and texture at home with what you've probably got. The grill doesn't have the ability to envelope the pizza in radiant heat from all sides like the oven does, but the concentration from bottom up means in little time you get a very crunchy vehicle for a conservative amount of toppings.

I think almost all good pizza is about moderation, and even more so on the grill. Because the bottom is going to cook really quickly, the top isn't going to have all that much time for cheese to melt, sauce to thicken, or vegetables to soften. So I suggest less is more. Doing pizza this way is really it's own invention, so I think of it as a flat bread best suited to a smattering of pesto, a very light touch of tomato sauce, or some melty cheese cut or shredded small enough to liquefy in five minutes or less.

It goes like this; throw your stretched dough on grill, sear to crisp the bottom, remove, turn over and put toppings on the seared side, return to grill with uncooked side down (obviously), and let the toppings heat through and melt before the bottom gets too done. Start to finish in 5-10 minutes. If your grill is big enough and has multiple burners you can put one section on lower heat so that in the topping cooking phase you can have more time for them to properly set before the bottom really burns.

And while I was prepping to grill some pizza recently, I portioned off some of the dough for regular oven cooking. This was to make something I first tried in Rome and achieved an instant appreciation for--pizza with potatoes.

Roman pizza is usually made in large rectangular pans, cut into squares and sold by the gram (or hand gestures). It makes for an easy walking meal since it's not too thin and more rigid than a wedge. My favorites are pizza with zucchini blossoms, and certainly this one.

Carbs on carbs might be counter-intuitive to some, but they are cheap and life-sustaining, so it's what's for dinner sometimes. The textural contrast of the crisp, thin crust and the soft buttery potatoes will make you toss aside any reservations of a glycemic index nightmare. And there's no cheese to boot if that allays some of your fears. Another great thing about this is that it's a pan pizza, spread on a baking sheet and thrown in a relatively moderate oven. An easy crowd pleaser.

Adapted from The Bread Baker's Apprentice

The Dough:

(Yields 6 6oz. pizzas)

4 1/2 cups bread flour (can us some or all italian 00 flour if it's rated for pizza)

3 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon instant yeast

1/4 cup olive oil

1 3/4 cups ice cold water

Stir together the dry ingredients in a bowl, then add the water and oil and bring together into a solid mass. Continue to knead the dough (with the same technique as italian bread), either in an electric mixer with a dough hook or by hand in a large bowl using a dough scraper, repeatedly dipped in water, pulling and stretching the dough while turning the bowl in the opposite direction. Do this 5-10 minutes, after which the dough will be sticky and elastic.

Get a large non reactive bowl and drizzle a teaspoon or so of oil into it and spread it around. Transfer the dough to a floured surface, flour your hands and form the dough by stretching the top and rounding it into a ball, folding underneath. Transfer the dough to the bowl and roll it around to coat it with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Remove the dough from the fridge 2 hours before you plan on making the pizza. Flour a surface and cut the dough into pieces of 6 oz. each (if you plan on making a potato pizza, cut off one portion of about 12 oz). Form each one into a ball, then press down on the surface into a disk about 1/2 inch thick. Sprinkle the dough with flour and cover them with plastic wrap. Let them rest for 2 hours.

For the grilled variety

Equipment:

A grill

A pizza peel or large portable cutting board

Preheat your grill. Flour a working surface, and using your hands or a rolling pin spread the dough out into something resembling a circle, but don't be worried if it's not as long as it's somewhat symmetrical. It's hard, but don't let the pizza get too thin in the middle while the edges are still thick. For grilled pizza it's especially important not to let the middle get paper thin, lest it break on the grill and make a mess of burnt cheese (happened to me).

Transfer the dough to a floured peel or board, then bring to the grill and throw it on carefully so you don't fold it or anything. Let it cook uncovered until the areas touching the grill harden and free themselves. This should only take about 2 minutes.

Remove from the grill and flip over on your floured board; this cooked side is where your toppings will go. It'll smell and look good enough to eat like that, but you're not quite done. Although you could just flip it and put the other side on the grill, cook it, and then spread some pesto or olive oil on it and serve like that. Otherwise, take the dough to your mise en place or wherever you're doing the toppings, and put them on. Back to the grill, cooler section of it if you have one, and let cook, covered, until the toppings are heated/melted, and the bottom is cooked. This should be another 3-5 minutes.

Remove and let cool 5 minutes, then slice and serve. Unlike a typical oven, with a multi burner grill you can rifle off a bunch of these in no time...with a good sous chef of course.

Now for the pizza con patate

Ingredients:

2 medium Yukon Gold Potatoes, skin removed

1/2 medium onion, sliced thin

2 sprigs rosemary

olive oil

Sea Salt and pepper (coarse salt if you have it)

Equipment:

11x17 inch sheet pan

Mandoline

Preheat the oven to 425º. Using the mandoline, slice the potatoes thin; not paper thin because you want to feel the slight resistance of potato as you bite into it, but about 1/16th of an inch. Put them in a bowl and toss with some olive oil, some rosemary needles, and a few pinches of salt.

Take the dough and flour the counter, then roll it out into a rectangle, more or less the size of the pan. Spray the pan with cooking spray or brush it on all sides with oil. Place the dough on the sheet and spread it to the edges of the pan, but don't let the center get too thin. If you can't get it to stretch to the exact dimensions of the pan don't worry.

Drizzle and spread a teaspoon or so of olive oil on the dough, then begin layering the potatoes. Overlap each piece to cover about a quarter of the one before, but no need to be too fussy. Get one good layer on the pizza, leaving a border of about half an inch around the edges. Drizzle some more oil on, then some salt and pepper, the onions, and some more torn rosemary needles.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until the edges of the crust are browned. Remove and let cool 5 minutes. Cut into squares and serve.

Italian Bread II

Here's How It's Done

Adapted From The Bread Baker's Apprentice

Biga Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups bread flour

1/2 teaspoon instant yeast (not dry active or fresh)

3/4 to 1 cup water, room temperature

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl then add the water and mix to form a ball. Knead in a mixer or on the counter for about 5 minutes to achieve a tacky dough. Lightly oil a bowl, place the dough in it and cover with plastic wrap. Let it ferment at room temperature for 2 to 4 hours until it doubles in size. Punch the dough down to release the gas, then re-cover with plastic and refrigerate it overnight.

Final dough ingredients:

Biga (removed from fridge 1 hour prior to making final dough and cut into 6 pieces)

2 1/2 cups bread flour

3 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon instant yeast

1 teaspoon diastatic malt powder

1 tablespoon olive oil

3/4 cup+ water at room temperature

Equipment:

2 11x17 inch sheet pans

A spray bottle of water

Remove the biga from the fridge one hour before assembling the final dough.

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl or that of an electric mixer with paddle attachment. Add the wet ingredients and the pieces of biga incrementally until a ball forms. The dough should be slightly sticky at this point. Add water if too dry or a little flour if it's batter-like, which it shouldn't be.

Now with the dough hook in an electric mixer knead the dough for 10 minutes, adding literally drops of water here and there to achieve a smooth, tacky but not sticky dough. Alternatively, if kneading by hand, take a dough scraper and pull and stretch the dough in one direction while rotating the bowl in the opposite direction, dipping the scraper in water periodically. Put some elbow grease into it and you'll feel the workout after only a few minutes.

Pour a teaspoon or so of oil into a large non-reactive bowl, transfer the dough to it and roll it around to coat it with oil. Cover with plastic and let it ferment for 2 hours or so until it doubles in size.

Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces. Gently press each piece into a rectangle. Fold the bottom third of the dough up to the center and press to seal, then fold the remaining dough over the top and use the edge of your hand to seal it closed. Let the dough rest 5 minutes, then roll the dough back and forth to extend it while creating tapered ends.

Lightly flour the backside of a sheet pan, then transfer the pieces of dough to the pan and cover with plastic. Proof at room temperature for 1 hour.

Place an empty pan of at least 1 inch depth on the bottom rack of the oven. Preheat the oven to 500º. Score the loaves with a sharp knife either down the length of the bread, or make a few slashes on the diagonal.

Pour 1 cup of hot water into the empty sheet pan, then place the pan with the loaves in the oven and close the door. After 30 seconds open the door and spray the walls of the oven with the water bottle a couple of times (don't aim it at the light bulb in the oven or it might explode) then close the door.

After 30 seconds repeat this once more, then lower the temperature to 450º and bake for another 20 minutes or so until the breads are plump and golden brown.

Remove from the oven to a cooling rack and let cool 1 hour before slicing or serving.

Note: Don't put your bread in an air-tight plastic bag! Let it breath, allowing it to age gracefully. Sure, it will get stale, then hard, but that's better than moldy. Leave it out or put it in a paper or well-perforated plastic bag. I've left a loaf out for four weeks and then made perfectly good bread crumbs with what remained. Just don't throw it away because there are lots of ways to use it; panzanella, ribollita, pappa al pomodoro--all Tuscan applications mind you. But those are ideas for other posts I suppose.

Italian Bread I

Italian Bread? Isn't that a generalization? No, I'm talking about the kind of bread my grandfather used to ritually go to the store for in the morning. The kind he would take out of the long paper bag, ripping off the ceremonial first chunk. Sliced and toasted in the morning with butter, used to make a sandwich at lunch, zopped in sauce at dinner. As long as I can remember my grandfather stocked and traveled with this kind of loaf, which is why this post is in his memory.

Good bread, I've found, takes time more than anything. It's not so much about technique or ingredients, but allowing the dough to properly ferment and develop the natural flavors that occur after flour and water are mixed.

For that reason most of the bread I make takes a couple of days. I don't consider recipes for any rustic loaves that give a total preparation time of 3 hours, for example. To me that signals that they're jacking up the yeast content to reduce rising time, which leads to over-yeasted bread that doesn't taste right or have any shelf life. Some yeastiness is good, yes, but what you're tasting in a good bread is the result of fermentation of all the ingredients, rather than the added rising agent itself.

So this italian bread formula starts with a pre-ferment, a biga, that gets made the day before baking, and builds flavor overnight in the fridge. It's added into a new batch of dough several hours prior to baking, kick starting the second dough and giving it a more complex flavor.

In terms of technique for this bread and my other favorites (ciabatta, focaccia, baguette), it's key not to over-flour. When people knead, especially by hand, they tend to keep adding flour to avoid the dough becoming a sticky mess. That increases density, and the aforementioned breads need high amounts of hydration to produce the irregular air pockets and chewiness we appreciate. I knead in an electric mixer and err on the side of tacky to wet and sticky.

I have to give credit to the Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart, a comprehensive guide to the art of baking by time-honored techniques. It purposely avoids shortcuts and works on formulas that I have found yield very good results at home. Most importantly, it makes it possible for a novice to become a good baker.

This formula includes diastatic malt powder, which is used to make the crust browner and thicker so that it kind of snaps when cut or torn off. It's not molecular gastronomy, just a dough enhancer that is totally natural (made by grinding toasted wheat berries), and it definitely improves the look and texture of the crust in this formula, as well as extending the shelf life. It is always available at King Arthur's online store, $3.95 for a lb., way more than you'll use in a year.

I opt for instant yeast for all formulas that call for added yeast. Unlike dry active or fresh, this yeast can be stored in the freezer for over a year and does not need to be primed in water, just mixed in with dry ingredients. It's also available from King Arthur and is not expensive--for $6 you'll get enough to make 96 breads.

I use a Kitchen Aid stand mixer to mix and knead most of the dough I make. It's not ideally suited to making bread dough because the shape of the mixing bowl and the lack of counter rotation mean the mass of dough sometimes just gets wound up and spins around uselessly. I have found though that manipulating the elevation of the mixing bowl (manually moving the lever on the right side that adjust the height of the bowl) enables me to get the dough to stretch and work to good effect. So while it's mixing I periodically raise and lower the bowl this way to allow gravity to pull the dough off the hook and stretch, then reattach itself. It sounds laborious, but it's easier than kneading by hand. The mixing bowl is also better at working additional water into the dough than hands--flour too but I almost never add more flour.

In the next post I will provide the formula for the bread itself.

John D. Zeoli 1924-2010