RECIPE: Coca de trampó
and a holiday crush
Is there a better feeling than falling in love with a local, on holiday?
Wait, I meant bake, local bake! Sadly for me, my holiday romances continue to be between me and what I’m eating.
I’ve been known to crush quite hard on a cuisine, having a little wobble that I’ll soon be without my daily fix of this or that. In Mallorca that crush has been on Coca, a sort of pizza without the yeast or cheese. I guess the base is more pastry than it is dough? Anyway, I was so happy to discover much like many Mediterranean recipes that rely on good ingredients more than they do fiddly technique, Coca was easy peasy to make at home!
Every evening at dinner, my niece Jasmine would ask the table, what was your highlight of the day? My family tend to get quite animated and talk over each other, so if you weren’t holding the tabasco bottle, you had to keep quiet. It was a really lovely moment of reflection hearing everyone’s happiest moments. The reason I mention this, is the day we went to Sineu and my Mum noticed a small doorway leading to a tool shop, was absolutely my favourite part of the day to recount at dinner. I bought a pail for hoisting water from the well, to use as an ice bucket, a few flan tins, and two coca tins. The man who owned the shop told us about the traditional Coca recipes and seemed happy that I was going to give them a go. He was the fourth generation of knife maker and to run the family business and it warmed my heart at how much pride he took in his shop.
Now, Coca is not something I have made until now so I’m no expert but I have eaten A LOT of it. We made an effort to get to the bakeries early enough before it sold out (it does, every day) but we also placed an order for trays of it one day and I can tell you that my recipe tasted very similar, but I went a little lighter on the tomato. You can use beer and pork fat in the dough, but our local bakery used just olive oil and it was perfect.
Recipe
My coca tin is 34 x 24cm
Serves 8-10
If you happen to buy one of these tins, season it first by cleaning in soapy water, then rubbing a light film of oil over and baking for 15 mins in a hot oven before letting it cool completely before using. This’ll stop your dough from sticking. You can of course use any trusty tray.
3 garlic cloves
