Onion schiacciata (schiacciata di cipolle)
Weird onion bread, Roger, again?
Oh goodness yes. And this one’s even easier.
If "weird onion bread" isn't functionally self justifying for you, then my dear, we may struggle.
But briefly: this is great with soups, on a cheese board, or as an astonishingly high impact-for-effort buffet piece, and these are all germane concerns in December.
To give my usual hand-wringing design notes: this isn't - I don't think - terribly authentic. A schiacciata would be leavened, more like a squished focaccia. I did find a few of these batter style recipes, and they seemed to be predominantly on Italian language websites (which is promising) or to have come via social media (which isn't axiomatically not, but…).
So I was sceptical when I started looking into this, until I remembered cong you bing exist, are unleavened, and are delicious.
Ingredients:
Onions, 700g (about 5)
Strong white flour, 300g
Milk 200g (I use oat, dairy is fine)
Water 180g
Pecorino, 50g
Semolina 50g (plus more for dusting)
Olive oil, 20ml (plus more for drizzling)
Dried rosemary, 1/4tsp
Notes:
Cheese: If you want to make this vegan, substitute any strong hard vegan cheese. They're getting really good. You can use another hard sharp cheese if you don’t have Pecorino. Parmesan would be the obvious choice. Strong cheddar works.
Tin: I’d recommend a large shallow baking pan. This uses a 30cmx40cm baking tin, to get a nice thin crispy finish.
Instructions:
Mix the flour, semolina, milk, and water with the rosemary and a little salt, and beat it to a smooth batter. Put to one side to rest.
The time taken to do everything else is enough resting time. More is better, and there's a note at the end.
With a mandoline or a sharp knife and some care and patience, finely slice the onions. Put them in a bowl of water, and massage and scrunch them a bit - this helps tenderise and separates the rings out. Leave to soak for 10-15 mins.
Heat the oven to 200°c. If yours has a pizza setting that gives extra heat from below, use it. If not you could try a pizza steel or stone. But an ordinary fan oven will do you well enough, we're just marginal-gainsing some crispy base here.
After some soaking time, drain the onions. Squeeze out a bit of the water but don't worry about it too much. The recipe assumes they'll thin the batter a little.
Grate the cheese and mix it, the onions, and the oil into the batter thoroughly. You’re probably best using your hands and giving it all a good squish.
Oil a baking sheet well. Scatter it with semolina, and spread over the onion batter evenly. Scatter the top with semolina as well, and drizzle with some more olive oil.
Bake for 45-50 mins until golden and crispy, and allow to cool.
Lovely crispy base
It's best warm, and reheats just fine. Fresh from the fridge not so much - this is a room temperature minimum, I guess.
I’d put this with soups and lighter stews, or as a cheeseboard side. It works as a snack, too. And if you were a quite spectacular wrong’un, you could take it out of the oven ten minutes before it’s done, throw on pizza toppings and mozzarella, and finish it off as a tasty, tasty crime.
Note on batter and resting times
Resting batter gives time for a bunch of fermentation effects that give you a better flavour. It also lets some gluten form and gives what has formed a rest to relax. Kenj gets into this in a big way for Yorkshire puddings over on Serious Eats. Broadly, crudely, a less rested batter will be more cakey and a more rested batter will be more bready. I prefer the latter, so when I make this, I make the initial batter a few hours in advance. You might get something crispier and lighter with a shorter rest, but I couldn't swear to it.
