Cuisine of Corsica

It is mainly based on the products of the island, and due to historical and geographical reasons, has much in common with Italian cuisine, and marginally with those of Nice and Provence.

[1] The geographic conformation of Corsica, with its eastern coast (the one nearest to the continent) low, malaria-ridden, and impossible to defend, forced the population to settle in the mountains of the interior.

[2] The agricultural products exported during antiquity reflect this situation: these were sheep, plus honey, wax and tar, produced by the widespread forests.

The concentration of settlement in the interior, typical also of the nearby Sardinia, lasted until the beginning of the 20th century; in 1911, 73,000 people lived in the zone comprised between 700 and 1,000 m above sea level.

[4] In the Middle Ages, more precisely during the 12th century, when Pisa was Corsica's hegemonic power, the large immigration from nearby Tuscany brought to the island, together with the Tuscan language, customs and dishes typical of that Italian region.

Still at the beginning of the 17th century, the Genoese administrator Baliano wrote that the Corsicans were living on barley bread, vegetables, and pure water.

[7] During the Corsican independence before the French annexation, Pasquale Paoli tried to enrich the diet of his countrymen encouraging the cultivation of the potato, so his political opponents ridiculed him, calling him Il Generale delle patate.

[7] In addition to chestnuts, at the end of the 18th century, the staples of the Corsican diet were cereals (mainly wheat and rye), dried vegetables, and charcuterie.

[9] He also writes that from November to June, only chestnut bread was consumed, and that the villagers owned vegetable gardens devoted exclusively to their feeding.

[10] After the beginning of the 20th century, the autarchic village economy based mainly upon chestnut and other locally produced aliments as pork faded away for several reasons;[11] above all, the eradication of malaria after the Second World War allowed life along the east coast and accelerated the depopulation of the interior.

[14] Today chestnut flour is a French AOC and a European AOP, under the name Farine de châtaigne corse-Farina castagnina corsa.

[12] Chestnut and its products are the centrepiece of two yearly fairs in Corsica: A Fiera di a Castagna in Bocognano, which takes place at the beginning of December [17] and the Fête du Marron occurring at Évisa at the end of November.

Above all in the Castagniccia, Bastelica, upper Taravo, and Quenza regions, a pigherd (u purcaghju) watches the pigs, which are free to search in the woods for chestnuts, roots, and small animals, but in the evening, they are fed with kitchen scraps and spoilt apples.

[31] Since 2004, the Corsican oil is an AOC product, under the name Huile d'Olive de Corse-Oliu di Corsica,[32] and successively it got also the AOP European denomination.

The island's wines were highly regarded during the Renaissance: in the Gallery of Maps in the Vatican, which depicts the regions of Italy and its surrounding islands, the 16th century Italian cosmographer Ignazio Danti wrote above the map of Corsica: "Corsica has received four major gifts from Nature: its horses, its dogs, its proud and courageous men and its wines, most generous, that princes hold in the highest esteem!"

The French state helped them with huge capitals, that were used among others to plant large vineyards on the east coast (which had been cleared from malaria few years before), introducing southern varieties which changed the profile of Corsican wines.

[40] The minestra, or zuppa corsa, akin to the Italian minestrone, is a soup with beans, potatoes, garlic, onion, mangelwurzel, cabbage and tomatoes, whose grease is given by a ham bone and shortening.

[56] Razighe, from Rusio, are thin dough pancakes made of wheat flour, yeast, egg and cracklings (a byproduct of sdruttu processing).

[57] Migliacci are savory galettes made of wheat flour, yeast, whey, goat and sheep cheese, baked on chestnut leaves.

[58] Meat in Corsica often comes from locally bred animals, and is very tasty, due to the numerous herbs of the maquis (machja) which feed them.

[63] Game is also abundant: wild boar (singhjari), thrush (tordulu), hare (levru), common blackbird (merulu, now protected), snipes (bicazzi) have their own recipes.

[50] Porto Vecchio is home to three dishes prepared with innards: Corda, goat or sheep intestines boiled in water and cooked in a pan with onion and garlic;[68] Rivia, lamb or kid intestine, innards, cooked on a skewer, put into the animal's caul, and pickled,[69] similar to the Sardinian Cordula; Manghjaria, ram, sheep or goat tripe, in the past offered to the people participating to a funeral.

[72] A legacy of the Genoese (and of the centuries-old contacts with Tuscany and Rome) are the dishes based on baccala and on stockfish: the former can be deep fried (fritelle di baccalà), or–a recipe from the Genoese colony of Bonifacio–with mangold and raisin (baccalà incu e cee e l'uva secca),[73] while the latter is prepared with tomatoes, anchovies and walnuts, in a dish named u pestu.

Falculelle from Corte are small cakes made with brocciu, sugar, flour and egg yolk, and cooked in oven over a chestnut leaf.

[84] Fiadone, prepared also in a similar form in some regions of southern Italy, is a cheesecake made with brocciu, eggs, sugar and citron zest.

Several cakes are prepared for feasts and special occasions, and some are characteristic of one town or village: Strenna (a pie made with flour and sdruttu dough and a brocciu filling) is prepared in Vico for New Year's Day, panzarotti (beignets made with flour, rice and yeast) are prepared in Bastia for St. Joseph's day (19 March),[90] panette for All Saints' Day (1 November), pan di i morti (also named uga siccati, small breads made with flour, yeast, sugar, butter, eggs, raisins and walnuts) for All Souls' Day (2 November) in Bonifacio,[91] canestri (donuts made with flour, butter, eggs and sugar) [92] and campanili (donuts made with flour, yeast, egg, shortening, raisins soaked in aquavita and sugar, decorated with boiled eggs) [92] at Easter, sciacci (the sweet version of these fritters, stuffed with brocciu, and traditionally cooked on a hot granite stone named teghja) are prepared in Sartène at Easter and during sheep shearing, in May.

[93] Inuliata, prepared in Ajaccio during the holy week, is a yeast cake having flour, powdered sugar, olive oil and wine as ingredients.