Hi!
Today I would like to share another typical Catalan dish, coca de recapte; it is a sort of catalan version of pizza, meaning coca (cake), de recapte ( for provision or to gather supplies).
The coca de recapte is nothing else but a bread olive oil dought with whatever you can find to put in top, most typically with escalivada and salted hearring or sausage. As the same words says, this was an easy food, that could be eaten during next days (it is as good cold than recently baked hot) and you didn´t need to refrigerate it. As well it is said that in the old days, in the small villages of rural Catalonia, the coca de recapte it was done by gathering some spare ingredients from few houses/families and going to the village bakery to cook it. So there is where the name comes.
Either the name comes from, this is a super easy meal, ideal for having many guests at home, or for a day out or picnic. As well, you can make a big batch of dough and freeze it and will stay perfect for few months.
Ingredients
- 10dl bread flour (we use flour with 11% protein)
- 3dl water
- 10g fresh yest
- 2tsp salt
- 0,75dl virgin olive oil
Preparation
Mix everything but the olive oil in a big bowl, use better slight warm water, work it with hands till it is a big dough, and then in a clean surface work it till you achieve an homogeneous dough. Keep in mind that this recipe it has low water content, so in the beginning might seem it is too dry, nevertheless, because not all flours are the same, if you can´t achieve a nice homogeneous dough, add bits of water.
Let it rest for 3h in a warm place covered with a clean cloth.
After the 3h, add the olive oil and work the dough again, let it rest for 30min.
Now the dough is ready to be cooked. You can cut the dough in four parts and, if you like it really thin, with this you will have 4 oven tray size coques (plural of coca).
If you want to freeze it, extend the dough and when it is ready for the ingredients, place it on top of a baking paper and roll it, then put it to a freezing bag and it can go straigh to freezer!
In the pictures you will see below, we cooked two coques, and froze the other two, one with spinach and tomato, and other one with onion. As I said earlier, the most typical way is with escalivada which it tastes amazing, but for me, the most delicious one is the one with onion but adding a bit of smoked pancetta.
For making the onion it is really simple, cut onions really thing and spread them around the dough, if you want add smoked pancetta, but otherwise just add salt, pepper and olive oil and 15 min at 200°C in the oven and it is ready!!
For the spinach, really simple too, in a hot pan with a bit of olive oil, saute the fresh spinach, when they start to shrink add salt and pepper and sunflower seeds if you have them. After saute the spinach for 3-5 min they will be ready so spread them in the dough and cut some tomato to put in top and 15min into oven at 200°C and it is ready too!
About the timing in the oven, it depens on the thickness of each coca, when the dough changes to slight toasted brown colour it is ready! Of course I rolled the dought really thin, and with that I did 4, but it depens on how thick you like it you will get more or less coques.
Hope you like it
Mr South
