The street food of Nice, the first time I actually ate socca was when my mother made it. Yeah, I don’t have your average culinary family. Since then I’ve had a strange obsession with it, having tracked it down from the one guy who makes it in all of Paris, to trying to master my own recipe.

What makes socca distinct from a regular crepe is that it’s made with chickpea flour (which happens to be gluten free and if you ask me, much more interesting than regular flour). It’s also called besan or garbanzo bean flour of course, and in the US you can get it from Bob’s Red Mill as well as tracking it down in stores that sell Middle Eastern ingredients. Beyond using it for socca, it’s also good  for coating fritters and using as a thickener.

It’s readily available at my local organic shop, so I have had plenty to play with lately. Numerous socca attempts to find the right consistency of batter? There are worse problems to have in life.

“Crepe” might in fact be the wrong word for socca – they’re a little thicker, somewhere in between a crepe and an American pancake, but much more delicious of course. I like mine thick enough that you can break off in healthy bits.

So I have been tweaking and testing and finally landed on a recipe that I love. Once you start making these you just might not be able to stop. All you need is chickpea flour, water, olive oil and some spices. Perfection.

Get the full recipe on Foodie Underground.