Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Socca
A thin, crisp-edged chickpea-flour pancake baked hot and eaten in torn pieces with black pepper.
Monégasque · easy · serves 4
prep 10 min · cook 12 min
~369 cal · 19g protein · 61g carbs · 7g fat · 12g fiber · 11g sugars · 1g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Socca is the great chickpea-flour pancake of the Riviera, shared across Nice, Monaco, and the Ligurian coast, where it is known as farinata. The batter could hardly be simpler, just chickpea flour, water, olive oil, and salt, but the cooking is dramatic: it is spread thin in a big copper pan and baked in a blazingly hot wood oven until the edges char and blister while the centre stays soft and creamy.
It is quintessential street food, sold from stalls and hole-in-the-wall vendors, scraped up, torn into rough pieces, and served on paper with nothing more than a heavy shower of black pepper. Eaten hot and fresh, ideally standing in the market, it waits for no one: socca is at its best straight from the oven.
Naturally gluten-free and born of cheap, humble ingredients, it belongs to the frugal cooking of the Mediterranean coast that Monaco shares with its neighbours. Smoky, nutty, and soft in the middle, socca is a small, delicious piece of Riviera everyday life.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
2 cups chickpea (gram) flour
2 cups water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt
plenty black pepper
Instructions
1
Whisk the chickpea flour, water, half the oil, and salt into a smooth batter the consistency of thin cream, then rest it at least 30 minutes and up to a couple of hours.
2
Heat a cast-iron pan or oven very hot with the rest of the oil.
3
Pour in a thin layer of batter.
4
Bake or broil until the edges are crisp and blistered and the middle is set.
5
Tear into pieces, shower with black pepper, and eat hot.
Monaco / Riviera tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Monaco. Barbagiuan means Uncle John in Monegasque. The parcels are filled with chard and ricotta, sometimes with rice or leek, then fried, and they belong particularly to the national day on 19 November rather than to any ordinary Tuesday.
🗺️
Monaco. Monaco's cuisine is Mediterranean Niçoise, socca chickpea pancakes, stuffed vegetables (barbagiuan), and stocafi salt-cod stew. Olive oil, herbs, and the Riviera coast define an elegant, sun-drenched table.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Monaco
StocafiMonaco's stockfish stew, simmered in tomato, wine, olives, and herbs until rich and tender.
Pan BagnatA round loaf soaked in olive oil and packed with a Niçoise salad of tuna, egg, and vegetables, a Riviera lunch.
Fougasse MonégasqueA sweet anise-and-orange-blossom bread topped with nuts and tiny red-and-white sweets, Monaco's festive bake.
Browse all Monaco recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Whisk.
Storing it: Best fresh and hot. Keep batter covered in the fridge for up to a day, and rewarm cooked ones in a dry pan.
Make it a Monaco meal
Fougasse MonégasqueDessert
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Frequently asked questions
What is Socca?
A thin, crisp-edged chickpea-flour pancake baked hot and eaten in torn pieces with black pepper.
Where does Socca come from?
Socca is a Monégasque dish from Monaco, Monaco.
Can Socca be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Socca recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Socca safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Socca take to make?
About 22 minutes total (10 minutes prep, 12 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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