Revithada, Sifnos chickpeas from the clay pot

Revithada is the Sunday chickpea dish of Sifnos: chickpeas, onions, olive oil and water, sealed in a lidded clay pot called a σκεπαστάρια (skepastaria) and left overnight in a slow oven. The pot matters because it holds low heat evenly for hours. The rest is patience.

Before you start

Sifnos pottery was inscribed in Greece’s National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage in January 2022. The island’s workshops still make skepastaria from heat-proof local clay, fired in wood kilns. Traditionally the pot went into the baker’s wood-fired oven on Saturday night and came out for lunch on Sunday.

A home oven works. A skepastaria is best, a heavy cast-iron casserole is a fair substitute, and a thin metal pan is not. If you use a new clay pot, follow the maker’s instructions for the first firing with water, and never move it straight from a cold surface into a hot oven.

Method

1. The night before, put the chickpeas in a large bowl, cover with at least three times their volume of cold water and leave to soak for 12 hours.
2. Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Heat the oven to 150 °C, fan off.
3. Slice the onions thinly. Put half of them in the bottom of the pot, add the chickpeas, then the rest of the onions and the bay leaves.
4. Pour over the olive oil, add the salt and a good grinding of pepper, then add water until it sits about 2 cm above the chickpeas. Stir once.
5. Put the lid on. For the traditional seal, mix a little flour with water into a stiff paste and press it around the join between pot and lid.
6. Cook for 5 hours without opening the pot. If you did not seal it, check after 3 hours and add a little hot water if the chickpeas are no longer covered.
7. Take the pot out and let it stand, still closed, for 15 minutes. The chickpeas should be soft enough to crush with a spoon, sitting in a thick, silky broth. Taste for salt.
8. Serve warm in bowls with bread, a squeeze of lemon if you like, and a thread of raw olive oil over the top.

Notes from the pot

• Chickpeas vary. Old stock can take an hour longer. If they are still firm at 5 hours, give them another 45 minutes.
• Overnight version. At 110 °C the dish can cook for 8 to 10 hours, which is closer to the island method. Use a little more water.
• Salt. Some cooks add salt only at the end, believing it toughens the skins. Adding it at the start, as here, seasons the chickpeas through. Both work.

From the shop

The Sifnos skepastaria in our catalogue is marked Being verified. It will not go on sale until the workshop supplies lead and cadmium migration test results for food-contact ceramics under Directive 84/500/EEC, and it ships within the EU only at launch. The olive oil can be either of our PDO oils, Kalamata or Kolymvari Chanion Kritis.