{"id":132,"date":"2009-05-01T09:00:15","date_gmt":"2009-05-01T13:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=132"},"modified":"2009-05-01T09:00:15","modified_gmt":"2009-05-01T13:00:15","slug":"la-farinata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/la-farinata\/","title":{"rendered":"La Farinata"},"content":{"rendered":"

Very often it\u2019s the simple things in life that are the best,\u00a0take for example\u00a0la farinata<\/strong>. La farinata<\/strong>, or faina\u2019<\/strong> as the locals call it, is a delicious savory pancake made with farina di ceci<\/strong> (chick pea flour), water and olive oil. Originating in the\u00a0region of Liguria<\/strong>, la farinata\u00a0 is also popular a bit further south in the Massa<\/strong> area where they call it\u00a0‘calda calda’<\/strong> (literally \u2018hot hot\u2019), and in Lucca<\/strong>, Pisa<\/strong>, and Livorno<\/strong>\u00a0where it is known as\u00a0\u00a0cecina<\/strong> or cecino<\/strong>. The Fiorentini<\/strong> (\u2018People from Florence\u2019) call it\u00a0Farinata alla Fiorentina<\/strong> (\u2018Florentine Farinata\u2019) although this name is erroneous because, as mentioned above, it\u2019s origins are\u00a0Ligurian. <\/span>Further afield la farinata can even be found in Provence, France, where it was taken by the mothers of young Italian men who were\u00a0forcibly enrolled into Napoleon\u2019s army and\u00a0followed to France\u00a0by their distraught families.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you ever wonder how, where, and by whom\u00a0recipes were invented? Well fortunately we have a legend (yes yet another legend!) which explains the precise origins of la farinata, eccola<\/strong> (here it is):<\/span><\/p>\n

In August of 1284 the Genovesi<\/strong> (\u2018People from Genoa\u2019) gave the Pisani<\/strong> (\u2018People from Pisa’) a jolly good bashing at the battle of Meloria<\/strong>. During the chaos of battle a number of sacks of ceci<\/strong>\u00a0(chick peas) split open and got mashed up with the contents of several broken barrels of olive oil in the galley of a Pisan ship. Now, the Genovesi have a reputation for being tirchi<\/strong> (tight), and have a horror of throwing anything away. They therefore\u00a0fed their Pisan prisoners bowls of the flour and oil mixture or \u2018farinata\u2019,\u00a0rendered more palatable by the heat of the sun which had evaporated the water. Later the Genovesi, recognizing a good thing when they saw it, perfected the recipe by baking a thin layer of the impasto<\/strong> (paste)\u00a0on large iron skillets in an oven.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t have the opportunity to pop down to Liguria to buy yourself a nice hot piece of \u2018farinata\u2019\u00a0you can always have a go at making it yourself. Here\u2019s what you need:<\/span><\/p>\n

Ingredienti<\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n

250 gr di farina di ceci<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 250 grams of chick pea flour<\/span><\/p>\n

750 ml di acqua<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0750 milliliters of water<\/span><\/p>\n

olio extravergine di oliva<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0extra virgin olive\u00a0oil<\/span><\/p>\n

sale e pepe<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0salt and pepper<\/span><\/p>\n

Optional:<\/span><\/p>\n

1 nave Pisana in cui mescolare l\u2019impasto<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01 Pisan battleship in which to mix the paste, if you don\u2019t happen to have a Pisan battleship handy you can always mix it by hand in a bowl.<\/span><\/p>\n

Put the flour in a mixing bowl, dilute it with the water and add salt to taste. Mix the flour and water thoroughly until it is smooth and there\u00a0are no lumps. Leave the mixture to rest for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight. Skim off\u00a0the surface foam that should have formed, and remix the paste. Spread a generous amount of oil (my recipe gives about a quarter of a cup!) in a low\u00a0wide\u00a0baking pan, then pour in a thin layer (roughly 3mm) of the\u00a0flour and water\u00a0paste, stirring it with a wooden spoon to allow the oil to be absorbed by the \u2018farinata\u2019.\u00a0 Cook in a preheated oven at 200 C (400 Fahrenheit) until\u00a0the farinata is golden in color and has a crusty surface. Cut into squares and serve hot sprinkled with rosemary leaves or freshly ground black pepper.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you are not familiar with metric measurements you will easily find a number of sites on the internet that give conversion rates for just about everything, e.g. <\/span>http:\/\/www.unitconversion.org\/weight\/grams-to-ounces-conversion.html<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Buon appetito<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Very often it\u2019s the simple things in life that are the best,\u00a0take for example\u00a0la farinata. La farinata, or faina\u2019 as the locals call it, is a delicious savory pancake made with farina di ceci (chick pea flour), water and olive oil. Originating in the\u00a0region of Liguria, la farinata\u00a0 is also popular a bit further south…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[657,658,690,766],"class_list":["post-132","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cecina","tag-cecino","tag-farina-di-ceci","tag-la-farinata"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1446,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions\/1446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}