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Corsica

Sunset over Palombaggia beach. Porto-Vecchio, Corsica.

Corsica, the Île de Beauté is one of the last McDonald’s-free zones in the world. Although it’s never included among the great gourmet regions of France, you will dine very well on the big island. Its sunny, unpolluted climate, its clear rivers and seas, its combination of Mediterranean and alpine climates and soils are brimful of character and uniquely influence its produce: this is what the French call terroir, and you can really taste it.

In spite of being an island, Corsica is so mountainous, its villages so historically isolated, that its traditional economy was pastoral. Free range sheep and goats are the source of Brocciu, the cheese that goes into about half of the island’s dishes. Semi-wild native black pigs (porcu nustrale) foraging on roots, grasses, acorns, chestnuts and maquis make the island’s excellent charcuterie, its prisuttu, coppa de Corse, lonzu, salamu (dried salami) and figatellu, much of it smoked on scented wood.

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aubergines à la Bonifacienne

stuffed aubergines, Bonifacio style

Brocciu

Corsican whey cheese

cabri à l’istrettu et petti morti

kid ragout with polenta

Callu de cabrettu

ancient goat’s milk cheese

canistrelli

crunchy Corsican biscuits

cannelloni

pasta tubes

Cap Mattei

Corsica’s favourite apéritif

Casgiu Merzu

Corsica’s famous maggoty cheese

cédrat

citron

châtaigne

chestnut

citron

lemon

clementine

mandarin hybrid

combava

formerly known as Kaffir lime

coppa de Corse

Corsican cured pork loin

falculelli

Brocciu fritters

fiadone

Corsican cheesecake

figatellu

Corsican pork liver sausage

Filetta

Corsican goat cheese

fritelle

Corsican doughnuts or fritters

lasagnes

A Corsican classic

lonzu

cured pork fillets from Corsica

mandarine

mandarin orange

migliacci

Corsican cheese bread

myrte

myrtle

Niolu

ancient shepherds’ cheese

oursins

sea urchins

pebronata

a tomato-based sauce or stew

prisuttu

Corsican cured ham

Rhum arrangé

fruity rum

Sartinesu

Corsican goat and sheep cheese

soupe Corse

hearty vegetable soup

veau aux olives

veal sautéed with olives and mushrooms

Venaco

rustic mountain cheese from Corsica

Vin Mariani

Before there was Coca Cola

ziminu

Corsican fish soup

Text © Dana Facaros

Image by Hervé Simon