Socca

And no, I haven't misspelt the game you play with a round ball! Socca is a peasant street food, a chickpea 'pancake' served in Nice and in Liguria and apparently it is hotly debated between the two as to which city is the authentic home. No matter - it is a lovely and incredibly easy thing to make, less like a pancake and more like a pizza, easier than an omelette and better on your digestive system to boot. Perfect gluten-free food.

Socca
You'll need a springform cake tin of approx. 25cm

Serves 2, but is great the next day for lunch.

1 1/4 cups of chickpea flour (also known as besan flour - get it from a good healthfood shop)

1/4 tsp of sea salt

1 1/4 cups of water

1/4 cup of olive oil, plus another 2 tablespoons extra

3 onions, peeled, halved and sliced into thin half moons

2 tblsps of mirin (from healthfood shops or Asian grocers)

Sift the flour into a bowl, add the salt and gradually add the water, whisking all the time. Whisk in the olive oil and leave for one hour at room temperature. You can in fact make this batter before you go to work, leave it in the fridge and cook it when you get home - even easier! It will keep in the fridge for 3 days.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Brush the springform pan with 1 tablespoon of the extra oil and pour in the batter. Fry the onions gently in the remaining 1 tablespoon of extra oil for 10-15 minutes or until they golden. When golden add the mirin and gently cook for another 10-15 minutes. At this stage, put the Socca in to the oven for 15 minutes, remove and top with the now caramelised onions and bake for another 5-10 minutes or until the top is golden and set.

You can add anything you like to the topping - herbs, chopped tomato, some roasted capsicum. Even soft, crumbled goats cheese if you like. Or with no topping at all, just drizzle with olive oil and heaps of pepper.