Farinata, Gluten-Free Chickpea-Flour Flatbread Made In Chicago

This month, we're taking back the grill–reclaiming it from burgers, chicken and steak, and loading it with swordfish, Japanese peppers and avocados (yes, avocados) instead.

We're decorating our farinata with grill marks, too. Gluten-free, chickpea-flour flatbread from The Farinata Project ($6 to $7 each at Olivia's, Urban Orchard, Green Grocer and Artisanal) is our new summer muse, its various flavors inspiring a flurry of creative garnishes.

We topped spinach-feta farinata with a salad of arugula, Sungold tomatoes, shallots, lemon juice and olive oil, and spooned harissa-yogurt-lemon sauce over farinata studded with red chard, pine nuts and raisins. Pesto is an excellent topping for the pizzalike white Cheddar-tomato version–as is a fried egg.

More to love about the farinata: They come frozen, and need only four minutes per side on a hot, oiled grill, or eight minutes in a 400° oven.

Ali Cole, the (gluten-intolerant) Chicagoan behind the flatbreads, encountered the traditional Italian snack while living abroad. Once home, she began adding vegetables and cheese to Ligurian chickpea flour. "It filled my need for pizza. And then it started to replace everything," says Cole. "I was eating it for breakfast, for lunch..."

Cole's determined to push farinata into the dessert realm, too: Flavors like grape-rosemary-honey and hazelnut-banana-chocolate will launch soon.