Farinata
A chickpea flour pancake baked screaming hot in a copper pan until the top blisters. Genoa eats it standing up, with pepper, out of paper.
Photograph credit: Farinata and Focaccia by Girlie and Mr. Pants from Austin, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Don't Make These Mistakes
Four hours minimum on the batter, and skim the foam.
Heat the pan empty first. The batter must hiss when it hits.
Thin — 6 mm. A thick farinata is a different and worse thing.
Cooking Farinata
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Whisk the chickpea flour into the water gradually, breaking up every lump, until smooth.
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Cover and leave at room temperature 4 hours, or refrigerate overnight.
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Skim off and discard the grey foam that has risen to the surface.
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Stir in the salt and the 6 tbsp olive oil. The batter should be thin, like single cream.
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Put a wide shallow metal or copper pan in the oven and heat it to 250°C / 480°F fan / 270°C / 520°F / gas 10 for 15 minutes.
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Take the hot pan out, add the remaining oil, swirl it, and pour in the batter to a depth of about 6 mm. It should hiss.
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Bake 15 minutes, until the top is blistered and browned in patches and the edges pull away.
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Grind the pepper over, scatter the rosemary if using, and cut into wedges. Eat hot.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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Why the Method Works
The batter has to rest at least four hours and better overnight, which does two things: the chickpea flour hydrates fully, so the finished farinata is creamy rather than gritty, and a grey foam rises that must be skimmed off — it is what makes badly made farinata taste bitter and sit heavily. The pan then goes into the oven empty until it is properly hot, and the batter should hiss on contact. A cold pan gives a pale, dense disc with no blistering at all.
After You've Cooked It
Best within the hour. Re-crisp leftovers in a hot dry pan.
Serving Farinata
- Black pepper
- A cold white
- Focaccia alongside
Common Questions About Farinata
How long does Farinata take to make?
15 minutes of preparation and 20 minutes of cooking, plus 4 hours of hydrating the chickpea batter, so allow 4 hours 35 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 6.
What's in a Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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