Thank you to Ange Pozzo, founder of L’Epicerie Corse and Cuisinez-Corse.com, for this guest post giving us a fascinating insight into authentic Corsican cuisine.
Corsica is an island to enjoy with all of the senses. A true wonder unfolds before your eyes, each time you witness its multi-faceted landscapes and its culture, shaped by Mediterranean civilisations. Stop for a moment to savour the smell of the maquis and, of course, enjoy the taste of the local cuisine; the gastronomy of the island of beauty is indeed a true revelation of flavours. With the expansion of tourism, the popularity of Corsican traditional cuisine has quite rightly increased but how can the patrimony of Corsican gastronomy be explored to maximum potential?
While developing the product range for our online delicatessen, l’Epicerie Corse, together with my brother Mathieu, I went to meet many local producers. We came across people who are proud of their heritage, people with exceptional expertise and we learnt so much that we could not even begin to narrate this knowledge-rich experience within the scope of this article. But we would like to share a glimpse of what we found.
Bastien, a beekeeper who produces AOC1 honey and Mickaël, a representative of all traditional producers in Southern Corsica, were the first to show us their expertise and before we knew it, their passion for their job had rubbed off on us.
A honey for each season
Passionate about his bees and land, Bastien Bizon-Maroselli revealed to us the secret behind the manufacturing of his 6 categories of Corsican honey: “miel de maquis”, “spring honey”, “maquis de printemps”, “maquis d’été”, “chestnut grove honey” and “maquis d’automne” with a touch of arbutus. Each type of honey is made at a different time of year and in this way his bees are able to produce delicious honey all year round.
How? Bastien was pleased to explain to us that he moves his hives to different flower rich locations depending on the season and the type of honey to be harvested. These little citizens of the hives are sometimes transported to the coast and sometimes to the maquis shrublands. At other times, they are taken up to high altitudes, to chestnut groves located at the heart of Corsican mountains.
Artisan charcuterie
Another revelation came to us through, Mickaël who took us to the village of Tasso to discover Corsican artisan cold cuts. The production of these charcuterie traditionally starts on 14 December. He showed us the pigs raised outdoor and mainly fed on natural feeds; on the menu – roots, mushrooms and chestnuts. This guarantees the quality of delicious charcuterie such as of panzetta, lonzu and coppa.
At the other end of the scale, many other producers have turned to modern industralised mass production and the vast majority of ‘Corsican’ deli meats now sold on the island are produced under semi-industrialised conditions using meat that is far from local.
Bastien and Mickaël, like other traditional producers, fight for the recognition of their authentic insular specialties, made from pastoralism and with ancestral expertise, sometimes dating back to antiquity. Their determination is reflected in “Riacquistu”, a movement launched In the 1970s’ for the purpose of ensuring the respect of the values of the Corsican culture and insular patrimony.
How to recognise a real Corsican product
First of all, there are the labels: the AOC (or AOP2, Europe-wide) staunchly guarantees an exceptional quality of the products and their manufacture. Whilst wines obtained their AOC labelling in the 1960’s, it is not until 2000 that Corsican cold cuts and the Corsican cheese brocciu acquired this label, unique in Europe. ‘He who has not tasted it does not know the island’, said Emile Bergerat, a French poet.
There is also the ‘Fermier’3 designation. This is not as ‘official’ a label as AOC, however it is associated to traditional husbandry conditions and ancestral production processes. The annual fee is far more affordable and serves as a good alternative for the small-scale producer or simple shepherd, who herds their goats on lands rented from landowners.
Of course producing quality, traditional, local products is more costly but you won’t find any of these producers using sheep’s milk imported from Sardinia or industrial pork from Germany. If you find a figatellu (Corsican pork liver sausage) costing just 6€ (£4.90) in a supermarket (or sometimes even at the local farmers’ market!) your suspicions should be raised!
Smell, flavour, production volume, producer’s name… All this allows you – roughly – to distinguish between an average product and an authentic Corsican one. The entire range of our products is made from raw materials and manufactured in our island.
The best part? Meeting the producers, visiting their estates, tasting and comparing. This is what we did with L’Epicerie Corse.
As said in Corsica: « Bon’ Appetitu »!
Enjoy!
About Ange and L’Epicerie Corse
Ange Pozzo is from Ajaccio in Southern Corsica. Observing that numerous consumers, travellers and all lovers of the finer things in life, look for high quality, additive-free products, made by authentic local experts using natural resources rather than industrial processing, Ange and her brother Mathieu, founded three enterprises: the online delicatessen L’Epicerie Corse, the tourist guide Vacances-Corses.com and the culinary blog Cuisinez-Corse.com.
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