My favorite fast food on earth is a dense chickpea flour galette called socca, a specialty of Nice. If I'm within 20 miles of that beautiful city, I'll go there and head straight for a little joint called Rene Socca in the heart of the Vieille Ville. I've eaten socca in nearby Cannes and Monte Carlo, and elsewhere in Nice, but nowhere does it measure up to Rene Socca's.

A transcendent socca experience

Socca is more than a galette; it's crispy and oily on the surface and hot, creamy and comforting in the middle, like chickpea flour polenta. Years ago, exploring Nice by myself on a very cold, gray winter day, I had my socca epiphany. I ordered a portion from a stand -- a hole in a wall -- and was very glad to have the galette warming my freezing -- and increasingly greasy -- fingers as I wandered up and down the narrow cobbled streets.

I finished my socca and wanted more. Every block was dotted with windows where you could order Nicoise specialties. So I continued to sample. But the bar was raised to the pinnacle when I stumbled upon two small, yellow-stuccoed, green-shuttered buildings straddling a tiny pedestrian passage. It was just about noon, and queues of hungry people were lined up at the windows to order their pizza, socca, Swiss chard tortes, farcis a la Nicoise (little stuffed vegetables), beignets (batter-fried vegetables and fish), and pan bagnats (Nicoise salad in a bun), all on display in the cases below the windows. Pizzas and socca never stopped emerging from the hot wood-burning ovens just inside the windows. The socca was baked in enormous round copper pans, each one yielding several portions. A fast-moving cook scraped the socca from each pan onto a large sheet of grease-proof paper or mounded it onto a plate, handed it to a customer and scraped out the next portion. When the pan was empty he poured in more batter and whisked it back into the oven. Some customers walked away with their food, others sat at communal tables and ate sur place. Whether eating on the run or at a table, the proprietors of Rene Socca make it very clear that you will not get a fork. Prominently displayed, in four languages (French, English, Provencal and Vietnamese) is a sign that says "Outside we eat with our fingers." You need a lot of napkins, but it's very satisfying to pick away at your savory, comforting mound of socca while you sip bone-dry rosé from the region.

Anyone with a cast-iron pan can make socca

Sometimes I get a hankering for socca, so I make it at home. Clifford Wright and I made amazing socca one night on the grill, in a paella pan. The wood smoke made that socca taste as close to authentic as I've ever gotten; but I'll still settle for the socca I make in a cast-iron pan in a very hot oven. There are only four ingredients that go into the batter -- chickpea flour, water, salt and olive oil. Once you get the consistency right -- what works for me has been a ratio of 2-to-1 water to chickpea flour -- the trick is heating the pan sufficiently, making sure that the pan you're using is well seasoned, and pouring in just the right amount of batter. Cook it long enough so that it gets crispy on the edges but not so long that it burns; it should remain creamy inside. Then let it sit for a couple of minutes before you try to scrape it out of the pan.

Socca (Chickpea Flour Galette)

Serves 4 to 6

Authentic socca is greasier than mine because more olive oil is used. Socca is a great snack and can also make a nice lunch, with a green salad. At the Middle Eastern market where I buy my chickpea flour they sell coarse and fine versions. I've used both, and they both work, but if you're making a choice, use the fine flour for socca.

Ingredients

Directions

1. Combine the chickpea flour, salt, water and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a bowl and whisk together well. Set aside and let sit for 30 minutes or longer.
2. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 500 F (with a baking stone in it if you have one).
3. Place a 10-inch cast-iron pan in the preheated oven and heat for about 5 minutes. Using oven mitts, remove the pan from the oven, spoon in 1 tablespoon olive oil and brush it over the sides of the pan. Whisk the batter and measure out 1 scant cup. Pour into the hot pan (it should sizzle); there should be about ¼- to ⅓-inch of batter in the pan. Return to the oven and bake 12 minutes. The batter should be browned on the edges and beginning to color a little on top, and it should be beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan. If you feel it needs a little more time in the oven, return to the oven for 2 minutes.
4. Remove the pan from the oven and allow to sit for 2 minutes. Use a metal offset spatula to scrape out socca from the pan. It's OK if it breaks up. Serve on a platter or on individual plates. This is meant to be crumbly finger food. Return the pan to the oven for 2 to 5 minutes to reheat, then with each subsequent batch (you should have about 4 batches total) add 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 scant cup of batter, whisking it before adding it to the pan.

Advance preparation: The batter can sit for several hours, in or out of the refrigerator. Whisk well before using.

Martha Rose Shulman is the award-winning author of more than 25 cookbooks, including "Mediterranean Harvest: Vegetarian Recipes From the World's Healthiest Cuisine," "Mediterranean Light," "Provencal Light" and "Entertaining Light."

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