Melissa Hemsley’s Farinata
Melissa Hemsley's chickpea flour pancake, or farinata, is a delicious side to dips, soups or salads and can be topped with your favourite pizza toppings.
Introduction
A must make. Here chickpea batter is baked into a thin, crispy pancake that is perfect for dipping into Hummus (page 63 of Feel Good) or to have alongside the beautiful Hearty Spiced Veg Stew on page 42 and other soups.
Ingredients
| 150g | chickpea (gram) flour |
| 5 tbsp | olive oil |
| 1¼ tsp | sea salt, plus extra for sprinkling on top |
| 1 | red onion, finely sliced |
| 20 | pitted black olives, finely sliced |
| 6 sprigs of | rosemary |
Method
Place the flour in a big jug or mixing bowl and slowly pour in 300ml of water, whisking as you go.
Preheat the oven to its highest temperature. Take your largest baking tin, approx 30cm x 22cm (if you don’t have one this large, use two smaller tins approx 22cm x 18cm). Grease the base and sides with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and place in the oven to heat up.
Whisk the remaining 4 tablespoons of olive oil into the flour mix, along with the 1¼ teaspoons of salt and lots of black pepper.
Remove the hot tin(s) from the oven, pour in the batter and top evenly with the onion, olives and the rosemary sprigs. Bake for 30 minutes until deeply golden and crisp on top. (Check after 20 minutes and turn down the temperature to fan 200C/gas mark 7 if it’s getting too dark.) Let the farinata cool in the tin(s) for 15 minutes (if you can wait that long!) before slicing each one into quarters and serving with an extra sprinkling of salt on top.
