La fainà

Among the many wonders that dot the Gulf of Poets, you can not forget the food, a real thread of Liguria and Italy in general. A dish that surely will not see the time to savor is the porridge or rather the "fainà", as they say in dialect.
This is a pie, made with chickpea flour, water, salt and extra virgin olive oil, a genuine delicacy and suitable for coeliacs. Gruel of excellence for generations is on the Ligurian is cooked in a wood oven boards, in baking dish, one more weapon for the characteristic golden color that when cooked.
This dish has ancient origins: it is said that in ancient Greece and Rome there were recipes for casseroles of mashed vegetables, cooked in the oven. A legend tells that it was born out of pure randomness in 1284, during the Battle of Meloria, which saw victorious Genoa on Pisa: Genoese warships found themselves involved in a storm and disorder a few barrels of oil and sacks of chickpeas overthrew, soaking salt water.
The menu gave no choice and then the sailors were given bowls of mashed chickpeas and oil. Some rejected this "delicacy" and left this compound in the sun, which dried in a kind of pancake. But hunger can not control and the sailors eventually ate the compound and discovered the good taste. Once back on the mainland, the Genoese improved this discovery, cooking the puree in the oven.