|
Home page/Typical recipes/Starter/Farinata
FARINATA
Famous dish in Liguria, it is also eaten in our province. The
cultivation of the chickpea in our territori bifore the Appennines is
due to a sandy land. The chickpea can be cooked very easily, if it is
cultivated in a clayey land. With the chickpeas, the famous
"soup of the dead" or “cisrà” is
prepared, common in the entire province and appearing in another part of
our book of recipes.
With the chickpeas, a flour is also prepared, the basi ingredient for
the preparation of several sihes of the Alessandria’s Appennine. The
most famous one is obviously the farinata or belacauda. In our province
there are no longer specialised shops selling exclusively the farinata (like
in Savona for example) and it is generally served in the pizzerias,
although less and less.
Preparation: mix 1/2 Kg. of flour of chickpeas in half a liter of water
or slightly more. Let the dough rest for long while adding little salt
and half a glass of oil of olive. Maybe add very little rosemary thinly
chopped. Pour in an appropriate "testo" (a round, wide and low pot) and
put it in an oven with lively fire, possibly of wood, for 15 - 20
minutes. Cut the farinata high not nore than a cm in slices with some
black pepper above.
Serve it very hot. Of corse the secret of a good farinata stando in the
water without limestone, in the chickpeas of a good year, in the cut
with very little white flour, in the type of oil, oven, etc.: a real
artwork! The farinata was a very poor dish for the entire dinner; today
it is especially a tasty dish to be served before or after dinner.
The
people of Liguria said: «Unna votta o mangiò di cavalli, ancheii l'è
diventau quello di becchi fin» (“Once it was the food of the horses, now
it has become the food of the gourmands”).
We
suggest you taste the farinata di degustarla near
Ovada or
Novi, where it is mostly
widespread and well-prepared.
Special Thanks
Edizioni So.G.Ed srl " Il Piccolo"
|
