Best Farinata Italian Flatbread Recipes

FARINATA (ITALIAN FLATBREAD)

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Brush a 9-inch tart pan with 2 tablespoons olive oil and place in the oven to warm up.
• Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add green onion and garlic. Cook and stir until softened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
• Mix chickpea flour with lukewarm water until smooth. Set aside for 20 minutes at room temperature.
• Skim foam from the top of chickpea-water mixture. Add remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Mix in onion-garlic mixture. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Add Gruyere cheese and mix well. Remove tart tin from oven and pour in chickpea mixture.
• Bake it in the preheated oven until crispy, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and cut into triangles before serving.

LIGURIAN FARINATA (SAVORY ITALIAN PANCAKE OR FLATBREAD)

Steps:

• In a large bowl, add the flour to the water, a little at a time, mixing and seasoning with salt until all of the flour and water has been absorbed; Add Optional Rosemary at this point.
• Let it rest for 4 hours (Or even better overnight).
• After this time, a layer of foam will have developed on the surface - Scrape it off with a spoon.
• Add the olive oil and remove the Rosemary (Optional) - Stir until all the Oil is absorbed.
• Pour into an olive oil well greased baking pan - the right one is called testo, made of "tinned copper" It should be about an eighth of an inch thick, perhaps a little more - a small deep dish Pizza pan will do (We used an iron skillet).
• Preheat the oven to 400°F.
• Remove from the oven when one of the corners (or the edge) starts to appear dark and has turned a golden color.
• Sprinkle plenty of pepper and eat immediately.
• ***It is of paramount importance that the pan is perfectly flat and level when in the oven, otherwise one of the corners will be thicker and will be undercooked when the opposite corner starts to darken. It tends to stick if you do not use enough oil. Also use parchment paper.

FETA AND ZUCCHINI FARINATA PIZZA (GLUTEN-FREE ITALIAN FLATBREAD)

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
• Combine flour, water, 1 tablespoon olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper in a bowl; whisk until smooth. Let sit for 15 minutes.
• Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and swirl around to coat skillet. Pour batter into the skillet and cook until edges are golden, about 2 minutes.
• Place skillet in the preheated oven and bake until set, about 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and top with zucchini slices, feta cheese, and Kalamata olives. Drizzle with remaining tablespoon 1 olive oil.
• Return to the oven and bake until golden and crispy, about 5 minutes.

FARINATA (ITALIAN CHICKPEA FLATBREAD)

Steps:

• Mix together chickpea flour and salt, mix in water and olive oil and let the batter rest several hours or longer. (Some recipes recommend sifting the flour and salt together, but I just whisked the water into it.) When ready to bake, preheat oven to 450F, then preheat the pan for about 10 minutes. (I cooked this in a small toaster oven which doesn't get hotter than 450F. If your oven goes higher, I would use a higher temperature.) Finely chop 1 T fresh rosemary (or grind a smaller amount of dried rosemary) and whisk into batter. Remove pan from oven, pour in about 1 T olive oil and spread around, then pour in batter. Grind a generous amount of black pepper over batter. Bake the farinata until it's starting to crisp and brown around the edges, about 20-25 minutes. This is meant to be served warm, but I thought it was also delicious cold, when it become slightly crisp like a cracker.