Red Onion Farinata Recipe

Makes:

1 large pancake

Naomi says: “Farinata is a chickpea flatbread with a crisp exterior and custardy interior, like a thick, savoury pancake. Creamy chickpeas and peppery olive oil make a great background for herbs like rosemary or for sweet onion. Although chickpeas can make some people a bit windy, fermenting makes pulses more digestible and the longer it ferments, the tangier it will be. Don’t ferment for more than 24 hours at room temperature, or the mixture may develop off flavours. Make sure to use a heavy pan that is oven safe.”

Ingredients

For the batter

100g chickpea flour or fava bean flour
50g millet or maize flour (or chickpea flour)
200g lukewarm water (30°C/86°F)
50g live yogurt of any kind
3 tablespoons of olive oil
½ tsp of salt

For the dressing/cooking

1 red onion
½ lemon
Olive oil
Flaked salt to finish

Equipment

A large cast iron frying pan, or heavy roasting tray

Method

1. In a mixing bowl, beat together the chickpea flour, millet flour, water and yogurt with a whisk until smooth. Cover and set aside at room temperature for 8-20 hours. If you need to leave it longer than 20 hours, after 8-10 hours put it into the fridge, for up to 48 hours.

2. An hour or two before you want to cook the farinata, peel and slice the red onion into thin rings. Squeeze lemon juice over the onion, add a pinch of salt and stir every so often over the course of the next hour. This will make the onion gloriously pink, instead of purplish grey.

3. When fermenting time is up, put a large, heavy frying pan on a medium heat and set the grill (broiler) to hot.

4. Whisk olive oil and salt into the chickpea mixture until incorporated.

5. Coat the base of the pan with olive oil. Immediately pour in enough of the mixture to fill the pan by up to 1cm, scatter the red onion rings and some flaked salt over the batter and drizzle olive oil over the onions.

6. Cook until the underside is crisp and golden brown.

7. Set the pan underneath the grill (broiler) and grill (broil) until the surface is patched with nut brown and the onions are sweet.

8. Slice in the pan using a pizza wheel or dough scraper. Eat as soon as you won’t burn your mouth.

Recipe extracted from Bread: Gluten Free by Naomi Devlin. Available now from Amazon.

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