Dear friends of Pesto Fresco, our tale of Liguria through its best typical dishes continues.

As we anticipated to you a few weeks ago, today we want to tell you about Farinata di ceci, one of the traditional Ligurian dishes, “fainè” or “fainà” in Genoa, appreciated and renowned now all over the world.

Let’s talk about Farinata di ceci through the words of Simone, owner with his wife Raffy of the Capalla Restaurant and Farinateria in Giustenice (Savona), founded in 1948 .

“An ancient legend has it that some Genoese sailors, in the battles against Pisa, in the turmoil of a storm that hit the ship on which they were embarked, refused a salvage meal of a mush of crushed chickpeas, spilled oil and salty water from the Mediterranean, leaving it in the sun. The mixture dried out by drying on copper plates and joints, turning into a kind of pancake (we know that it takes quite different knowledge and quite different temperatures to make it soft and fragrant at the same time). The following day, our “picky” sailors, driven by hunger pangs, ate the preparation, discovering to their amazement its deliciousness, crunchiness and good saltiness. Of necessity, virtue! Back ashore then, the Genoese thought of improving on the discovery they had made by chance, recreating and baking the puree in the oven on special copper pans, selling it for an appropriate fee. They liked chickpea porridge very much and, to taunt the defeated, in the early decades of the 1300s it was called “the gold of Pisa.””

Simone also left us the recipe for his Chickpea Farinata, for those who wish to try their hand at preparing it.

It takes 1/2 kg chickpea flour, 800cl water, 3 tbsp EVO oil, 3 tbsp sea salt, 1 tsp pepper. Let stand after stirring the mixture and wait 4 hours. Pour the contents into a tin-plated copper pan. If possible, bake in a wood-fired oven at 280/300 degrees for 14 minutes.

For those who want to taste chickpea farinata made by real professionals, the Capalla Farinateria Restaurant offers several variations: the classic with rosemary, with onions, with sausage, and with seasonal first fruits. In addition, you can choose from other dishes of ancient Ligurian tradition.

For our next appointment, a very healthy ingredient in our Pesto Fresco Genovese!