Lost the Plot

Today I'm cooking with olive oil.

Lately I’ve been buying shelf stable goods like a doomsday prepper. There was the chickpea flour and vital wheat gluten E ordered a few weeks back, the $100 worth of pulses and corn products from Rancho Gordo, a 25lb! bag of jasmine rice I purchased at my favorite local Thai market the morning tariffs went into effect, and oh yeah, 4.4lb of masa harina I couldn’t resist when Masienda offered free shipping for Mother’s Day. As the kids like to say, I lost the plot; this morning I woke up stocked to my eyeballs with beans and grains, yet almost out of oil.

I ran out to Aldi at lunchtime to snag a bottle of the cheap (currently $9.99/16.9oz) but relatively good Sicilian olive oil I like, and on the drive over decided I would use it to make socca, a Provençal flatbread with only four ingredients— chickpea flour, water, salt and olive oil. The recipe I’ve used since 20*redacted* from David Lebovitz also calls for cumin, but I think I’ll skip it and add flat leaf chives instead.

The socca batter is now whisked and resting in the fridge, the new bottle of oil is tucked safely into my cubbord. All that’s left to do is make a simple, super Springtimey side. I’ll sautee rainbow chard and spinach from the garden in garlic oil (I’m THIS CLOSE to finishing that last jar from the freezer!), then grate a clove of raw garlic in at the end with lots of salt and dill. I’ll crumble Greek feta over top and serve it along side smokey, fresh-out-of-the-oven socca and a blood orange Spindrift.

And for dessert, the reason I was low on oil in the first place: chocolate olive oil cake.