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LA CECINA: “STREET FOOD”
Great for a break, when you start
feeling pangs of hunger but it could be the main dish of a dinner, maybe before
going to the cinema or to the disco. It is the oven baked chickpea batter ( in
Spezia it is called farinata and in Pisa torta di ceci, in Savona fainą and in
Nice (you can find it there too) soccą, with the accent on the final a we are
talking about that food, which in American terms, could be called the street
food of our riviera. You find it in all take away pizzerias in Versilia. It is
a typical recipe on the coast because these "big suns" were put on
board ships to be eaten instead of bread and it seems that their origin even
dates back to the battle of the "Meloria". Many variations of how to
eat them. Among the most popular are: la focaccia imbottita di cecina oven
baked pizza dough filled with cecina, a speciality from Livorno, it is still
called «5 e 5» because you used to ask for 5 centesimi (old lira) of focaccia
and 5 centesimi (old lira) of cecina. A petition has been sent to the EU,
requesting that this recipe be officially recognized as typical and traditional
of the area. .
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LA C E C I N A
It is a simple mixture made of
water, chickpea flour and salt. The batter is prepared and poured on to special
big baking pans called “teglie” which measure more than 1 metre in diameter;
they are then placed in the oven preferably heated by wood; what come out are shapes
like “big suns” crunchy and crispy on the outside but soft on the inside. Best
eaten piping hot with a sprinkling of ground pepper.
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