The socca Nice

In Nice, socca is eaten from its earliest childhood until its greatest age. As soon as we speak of specialties and traditions in this city of Azure, the name of the "socca" often returns and is almost always associated with all the festivals and the celebrations. What is this famous socca? Besides, is it so famous? Where do the people from Nice get this recipe? So many questions that we will try to answer in this article.

Socca is a culinary specialty made from chickpea flour. It is very popular throughout the region of Liguria which includes Menton, Nice and Monaco, but it is also very popular in Italy, especially in Piedmont, to which Nice was attached before its annexation to France.

As for the second question concerning the taste of socca, we will let everyone appreciate this Occitan recipe. Everybody has his preferences, as they say! Some people will love socca and others will like less, but in any case, what is certain is that if you stay in Nice without enjoying this dish even once, it would be a shame , because we would have missed a symbol of Ligurian authenticity.

Now, with regard to the origins of this dish which is now part of the emblems of Nice, we must go back to the periods of Saracen occupation of Italy. Those are the peoples of the Middle East who would have introduced fried chickpeas into local gastronomy. These fries soon knew a great success and each region adapted them in their own way. In Liguria, they will take the form of large cake. On the Côte d'Azur, street vendors bake it on the spot and sell it in traditional paper cones. This is the case, for example, at Cours Saleya, a traditional market place in Nice.