Happy first day of Autumn! Even if I love summer and I was lucky enough this year to enjoy a lot of swimming and beach time, both in Croatia and on St Lucia (pictures coming soon, I promise!), I must admit that I’m kind of happy for this change of season and everything that comes with it. Autumn is such a cozy time of the year and I love cozy! 🙂 When I was on the beautiful Caribbean island for holidays, I kept thinking how from one side it must be amazing to live in a place where it’s always summer and you basically live in swimsuits and flip-flops but from the other side, I would really, really miss all the beauty of different seasons.
So I guess living in the Caribbean is just not for me (but holidays there definitely YES!). I love too much the coziness of listening to the rain while baking in my warm kitchen or reading a book under a blanket or eating all the amazing autumn food like apples and pumpkins and chestnuts… Or having a walk in the rain until your hands start to freeze and than going in the cute little warm café for a cup of hot tea or coffee and a little sweet treat. I would miss looking the changes in the nature and how the leaves turn from green to golden and red… Or wearing boots and pretty coats, yes I would definitely miss that. 🙂 And that’s just autumn, better I don’t even start about winter and all the things I love about the cold season, things like hot chocolate (of course that is the first thing that comes to my mind!), snow!!!!, baking Christmas cookies (I mean, sure, you can still bake Christmas cookies if you live in the Caribbean but it would just not be the same…), watching movies under than blanket and eating those cookies I mentioned earlier, wearing warm socks and pretty wool caps, basically all things warm and cozy! 🙂
While talking about this, why not mention that it’s actually snowing outside as we speak! I know, I know its’ only September but that can happen if you live in the Alps, it can snow in September! But I don’t mind, it’s kind of exciting and it’s going to melt anyway in a day or two and hopefully we will have some of those gorgeous colors before the white blanket covers everything…
Now the recipe! Finally you say. 😀 I recently saw a photo somewhere of this Italian chickpea focaccia, called cecina in some parts of Italy and farinata in others and I knew I had to make it. It looked so good and I’m glad that it tastes that good too! Basically the only thing you need to buy for this is chickpea flour that you can find in any health food store.
Other ingredients you most likely have at home, olive oil, salt and rosemary. It’s a simple and delicious focaccia bread that is naturally gluten-free so great for those who can’t tolerate gluten. Now even if you can’t have regular focaccia, you can have this one that tastes amazing and goes great with cold cuts, specially Parmesan cheese.
In Italy is usually eaten with ground pepper on top but I replaced pepper with Parmesan and I think it worked great! Confirmed by my Italian husband who asked me to make it again soon as it’s so good. I made it three times in five days actually, I had to test the recipe you see! 😀
- 100 g (3.5oz) chickpea flour
- 300 ml (1 and ⅓ cup) water
- 3 tbsp good quality olive oil
- salt
- rosemary
- Mix the chickpea flour and water in a bowl, stir and cover with clean kitchen cloth. Let it sit for about 4 hours.
- After 4 hours, if there is any foam on top, remove it gently with a spoon.
- Grease the 25 cm (10¼ inches) round baking pan with 1 tbsp olive oil.
- Preheat oven to 230 C (450 F).
- When the batter is ready, stir it and add salt (and pepper if you wish) and rosemary as per personal preference.
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan.
- Add 2 tbsp olive oil and with a spoon gently turn the batter in the pan so as to break the olive oil.
- Put it in the oven and bake for 15 min on 230 C (450 F) and than broil on high temperature for additional 5 minutes so that a golden crust forms.
- Cecina should be firm enough that you can cut easily but still creamy and not dry.
- Grate some Parmesan on top and eat it warm, as appetizer or snack. Enjoy!
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