Cecina
Toscana
Tuscan chickpea flatbread
Chickpea flour, water and olive oil bake into a thin golden round, crisp at the edges with a soft center.
A golden chickpea round, cut for sharingA thin slice,
a Tuscan coastal snack.
Cecina is a thin chickpea flatbread found along the Tuscan coast. A liquid batter of chickpea flour, water and olive oil sets in a hot, shallow pan, forming golden edges around a soft middle. It is cut into slices and eaten warm.
The name changes along the coast: in Pisa it is cecina, while Livorno calls it torta di ceci and serves it in a sandwich called cinque e cinque. This home version makes the flatbread alone in a metal pan; bread and sandwich fillings are separate choices.
Explore by food: Bread, pizza & street food · Vegetables & cheese
At the table: Antipasti · Street food.
Let’s make cecina Toscana.
One 30 cm shallow metal pan gives a thin home-oven flatbread. Allow four hours for the batter to rest.
One 30 cm round: four snack portions, cut into eight wedges. Flatbread only.
What you’ll need
- 100 gchickpea flour
- 250 mlwater
- 35 mlextra-virgin olive oil, 20 ml for the batter and 15 ml for the pan
- ¼ tspfine salt
- a small pinchflaky salt, for finishing
- to tasteblack pepper
The cooking allowance includes heating the oven; the 245-minute rest includes four hours for the batter and five minutes after baking. Pan diameter matters: a smaller pan makes a thicker preparation. Bread, dips and sandwich fillings are not included.
How to make it
- 01
Mix and rest
Whisk the water gradually into the chickpea flour and fine salt until smooth. Stir in 20 ml oil. Cover and leave for 4 hours in a cool kitchen, stirring once halfway through.
- 02
Heat the oven
After the rest, heat the oven to 230°C/450°F, allowing about 20 minutes. Use a level, shallow 30 cm metal pan whose coating is rated for this temperature. Spread the remaining 15 ml oil over its base and sides.
- 03
Bake thinly
Stir the batter well, skim off surface foam and pour it into the pan in an even layer about 5 mm deep. Bake for 20–25 minutes until the surface is golden, the edges brown and the center is set rather than liquid.
- 04
Cut and serve
Stand for 5 minutes. Loosen the edges, lift onto a board and cut into eight wedges. Add the small pinch of flaky salt and black pepper and serve warm.
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