An Easy Toddler Focaccia
Or, maybe it’s more like a flat popover. Or pizza. Or quiche. Maybe it’s all those things?
But really really this is an optimized Scarpaccia, a rustic flatbread from northern Italy. There, it’s the quintessence of cucina povera: just flour, cornmeal, oil, water, and some thin coins of zucchini. Here, we go next level on the blueprint, adding eggs, not only for protein and vitamins but also to add a spring to the chew that’s more toddler friendly; we also mostly grate the zucchini into the bread, the better not to distract or dismay young and often green-vegetable-suspicious child. (Note: if the sight of vegetables altogether repels your child, you can skip the coins altogether; see instructions, and recipe for more and how to do that.) Add cheese if you’d like; keep the dairy out entirely and go vegan by using water in place of eggs. It couldn’t be more simple to make, or more satisfying to eat, and it can also do double-duty underneath your child’s favorite spreads, as sandwich bread, or a snack that you can dip into ketchup or another favorite condiment.
- 1/2 cup Flour
- 1/4 cup Cornmeal
- 2 large Eggs
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- grated Parmesan
- Seasonings of your choice (Rosemary is the standard in Italy; we often use bail)
- Preheat oven to 400. Place parchment paper atop a flat-rimmed baking pan. Drizzle olive oil over the parchment paper.
- Peel the zucchini. If planning on placing coins on top of the bread, cut–and a mandolin is really helpful here–roughly 20 very thin slices. Set aside. Grate remaining zucchini into a mesh strainer.
- Place a medium-sized bowl underneath the strainer with your grated zucchini, then take a flat-bottomed heavier object that can fit within your strainer–say, cans or jars of food, or small mixing bowls – and press down on top of zucchini, squeezing out the water from the vegetable. It will likely take several pushes in order to extrude all the liquid. Set grated zucchini aside.
- In the bowl with the water from the zucchini, add the eggs; mix until blended. Add the flour, cornmeal, oil, two pinches of salt, and one pinch of pepper; stir until a smooth batter is formed. (It should be pretty darn creamy so if it looks dry, then it should, add a little bit of water to loosen.)
- Add grated zucchini to bowl and stir to integrate into the batter. If using cheese, add in as much as you’d like; do the same with your seasoning, if using. Give the batter one last stir to integrate.
- Pour batter over the top of the parchment paper, spreading it all about so that the batter is thin throughout. If using, place zucchini coins on top of batter; drizzle a bit more olive oil all around.
- Cook for ten minutes, then turn on convection oven and cook until top is nicely browned and the edges are crispy, roughly 10 more minutes.
- Allow 3-5 minutes to cool. Grate additional cheese or sprinkle more seasonings on top as desired.
If you’ve got a zucchini skeptic, spread some cream cheese on top the first time you serve it. We often cut the pieces into strips or squares to allow it to be dipped–often in hummus or guacamole–but you can also slice into triangles and serve like piece.
Spread the batter even thinner and cook about 10 minutes longer and you’ve got crackers. Eliminate the zucchini and sub in chickpea flour for the white stuff and you’ve got socca, the French flatbread.