In the south-west of Spain, a coca is often offered, especially as a snack in bakeries and at markets. Of course, there are also very elaborate versions in restaurants.
The coca is at home in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands especially, but it can also be found in the regions of Valencia and Aragón. It is not at all similar to pizza, in particular it never contains cheese.
It bears a certain resemblance to the pissaladière, which also comes from a neighbouring Mediterranean region. However, a coca is baked with a bread dough that is reminiscent of Italian focaccia.
Coca is mainly topped with vegetables, but fish and meat can also come into play. There are even sweet variations. It’s up to you how you want to personalise your coca. We will focus on the dough, the recipe for which comes from a Mallorcan bakery.
This dough can be made with wholemeal flour or with mixtures of different flours. Here too, there are no limits to your imagination and experimentation. For people who follow a vegetarian or vegan diet, coca is a great addition to the menu.
The dough consists of flour, salt, a little yeast, water and plenty of olive oil. Salt is added to the flour, which can be sieved to make it easier to work with, but does not have to be. The very little yeast is dissolved in lukewarm water.
Form a hollow in the flour, like an inverted volcano. Pour the water and yeast into it and work it in by hand until all the flour has come into contact with the water and a first, still coarse dough is formed. This takes a good 5 minutes. Then the olive oil is added and patiently kneaded until the dough has absorbed all the oil. This will certainly take 10 minutes. We would rather not use a food processor here.
You will probably think at first that the dough will never absorb this amount of oil – but it does.
The dough is then covered and left to rest for at least 30 minutes. Then one half of it is placed on a baking tray, on baking paper. A good alternative to this is always a Silpat mat.
You can hardly roll out this dough. Instead, simply press it flat with your hands and mould it into the desired shape, which is very easy. A height of 3 – 4 mm is what you want. There is no need to form an edge, the dough will rise a little higher by itself where it is not topped.
Once again, the dough is covered and left to rest for at least another 30 minutes, or even better for an hour.
For the topping, we describe two classics and one version that we find particularly delicious. But just follow your own taste.
In Mallorca in particular, coca de trampó is the most common preparation. Trampó is actually a summer salad consisting of diced tomatoes, onions and peppers mixed with salt and, of course, olive oil.
Escalivada, tender vegetables baked to perfection in the oven, is also an excellent option.
As with pissaladière, long caramelised onions are also a great topping for a coca. We also add black garlic, a product that we can only recommend without reservation. Whole garlic bulbs are stored for weeks at a specific temperature and humidity, which completely changes the flavour and appearance of the garlic. It is not difficult to get hold of this product nowadays. The bulbs are cut in half crosswise and the deep black delicacy is simply squeezed out.
Mixed with the caramelised onions and seasoned with salt and pepper, this is a delight.
For a very colourful coca, we use all three mixtures of vegetables.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius with top and bottom heat, without convection. Then bake the coca for almost exactly 30 minutes, but it’s best to check after about 25 minutes to see if the dough has crisped up and the edges are gently browning.
This can now be varied endlessly. For example, you can add chorizo on top of the vegetables, which we would also bake for the full time. Fish that is as oily as possible, such as sardines, is also excellent, whether fresh or tinned. However, we don’t bake it for so long, just the last 10 minutes or so.
The dough is fascinatingly light and very crumbly. You would hardly guess that it contains so much olive oil – an extremely healthy ingredient.
Enjoy.
And may the taste be with you.
Ingredients (we only describe the dough for 2 baking trays here):
500 g flour (any wheat or spelt flour is suitable, including wholemeal flour or mixtures thereof)
10 g salt
12 – 13 g fresh yeast (or 4 g dry yeast)
250 ml water
150 g olive oil
