Farinata | Italian Chickpea Flatbread Recipe
Share
One of our favorite treats from our recent travels through Italy is a humble but delicious dish that’s easy to master, simple to make, and totally vegan (but trust us, even a carnivore will love it). It’s called “farinata” and is made with just chickpea flour, water, salt and olive oil. That’s it!
When baked it becomes crispy and incredibly yummy (almost addictive)—plus, you can do a bunch of creative things with it, from “farinata pizza” to stuffing it with meat and cheese.
If you want to learn more about farinata and different ways you can serve it, check out our video below!
Watch the Pasta Grammar Video
Farinata Recipe
Makes: One 12-inch flatbread
Cook Time: 4 ½ hours, largely unattended
For this recipe, you will need:
- 1 cup (120 grams) chickpea flour
- 1 ½ cups (360 milliliters) water
- ½ tablespoon (7 grams) salt, or to taste
- 1 tablespoon (15 milliliters) extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for greasing the pan
Place the chickpea flour in a large bowl. Gradually add the water while stirring with a whisk. Stir in the olive oil and salt. Mix the batter until it is even, with no clumps. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 4 hours, even better if it can sit overnight.
When you’re ready to cook, preheat the oven to 480° F (250° C). The farinata batter will have a layer of foam on top—skim it off with a slotted spoon and discard it.
Completely coat the bottom of a 12-inch (30 centimeters) non-stick round pizza pan with a generous layer of extra-virgin olive oil. Ladle the farinata batter into the pan to fill it and gently stir the to incorporate the olive oil into it.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until crispy and beginning to brown on top. Serve warm and fresh.
Buon appetito!
20 comments
@Lori Senator We weren’t familiar with that flour, but after checking it out it does seem a little different so we’re not confident it would work. Might make a good experiment, though!
@Gini In that video we made multiple farinate, hence the extra batter for the others! The recipe makes enough batter for one 12-inch flatbread, so you should use all of it. If you make extra and have leftover batter, it can be stored in the fridge for up to a week until you’re ready to cook it. Just stir it from time to time because it naturally separates
I noticed you didn’t use all of the batter, just wondering how high the batter should be in the pizza pan (my pan has slightly higher sides, so I could probably fit all the batter, but then the farinata might be too thick (in height). And what do you do with the leftover batter? Thanks!
Can you use Besan Gram Flour? I bought it and then found out there are different chickpeas and flours! Thanks
@Teresa Bueti It’s 1:3 flour:water by weight, which ends up working out to 2:3 by volume. Slightly confusing, thanks for the clarification!