COPPERSocca recipe
A 3 mm sheet of chickpea batter poured onto a smoking oiled copper plate and blasted at 280 °C until blistered and charred at the edges.
Ingredients
- 250 g chickpea flour
- 750 ml water
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp olive oil for the plate
- 1 tsp fine salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
How to make Socca
- Whisk 250 g chickpea flour into 750 ml cold water with 1 tsp fine salt until completely smooth. The batter is meant to be thin, like cream.
- Whisk in 4 tbsp olive oil, then pass the batter through a fine sieve so no lump survives.
- Cover and rest at room temperature for 1 hour so the flour hydrates.
- Heat the oven as high as it goes, 280 °C with the top element on, and put a large copper or heavy steel plate inside until it smokes.
- Pull the plate out, brush it with 4 tbsp olive oil, and pour on just enough batter to make a 2 to 3 mm film.
- Bake 5 to 8 minutes near the top heat until the surface blisters, browns and blackens in spots. Those scorched patches are the point.
- Tear it into rough pieces with a spatula, grind over plenty of black pepper and eat it standing, with your fingers, straight from the plate.
What is Socca?
Socca is a traditional dish from Monaco, baked in the oven, and takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes from start to finish. It is built around chickpea flour. The recipe below uses 6 ingredients and is written out step by step.
How long does Socca take?
At 90 minutes it is quicker than 63% of the 586 dishes in Copper's atlas. Copper's atlas has 2 dishes built on chickpea flour. The method runs to 7 steps, the longest being 8 minutes.
Any tips for making Socca?
Heat the plate in the oven until it smokes before oiling it and pouring on a thin film of batter; the scorched patches are the point.
How Socca compares
Chickpea flour appears in no other dish in the atlas.
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