Corsica by Nicolas Stromboni
March 18, 2018 by Jenny
Corsica: The Recipes by Nicolas Stromboni is a beautifully photographed book celebrating all that is Corsican. Far more than a collection of recipes, the pages here also reflect the people and the landscape of this island while exploring eighty incredible recipes designed to be prepared in anyone’s home kitchen.
Relatively unexplored by visitors from outside Europe (although
it attracts an estimated three million from France annually),
Corsica is a Mediterranean island steeped in rich food culture.
With incredible geography ranging from the mountains to the plains
and the stunning coastline, Corsica has long been a well-loved
idyll for those in the know. It is also home to a unique cuisine
that blends the best of French and Italian food and that respects
its homegrown produce: citrus fruits, grapes, chestnuts, cheese,
herbs, fish, seafood, and charcuterie.
Tucked within the recipes are portraits of those who live and work
there, and those instrumental in maintaining Corsica’s rich food
culture. You will meet cheesemaker, Jean-André Mameli, and learn
his technique for making Brocciu cheese, a sheep’s or goat’s milk
cheese. Then recipes utilizing the cheese such as Artichokes with
Brocciu cheese or Chestnut polenta follow. Other portraits include
those of fishermen, farmers, cooks, restauranteers and
more.
A Fiadone (a bottomless cheesecake), E Frappe (a light and
delicate sweet fritter), and Polpetti in salsa rossa (veal
meatballs) are other examples of dishes here along with myraid
seafood and vegetable dishes. While immersing ourselves in the
cuisine, we also learn about Corsica’s donkeys, wine, hazelnut
growers, food vocabulary and so much more.
The Pork cutlets and Ciaccia, a dreamy potato and cheese pie, were
both simple and delicious and need to be made again soon. This
gorgeous book has put Corsica on my list of destinations to
experience and until then I must be content to study its photos and
recipes and dream.
Special thanks to Smith Street Books for sharing the following recipe with our members today as well as providing four copies of this book in our contest below open to our members in the US (2 copies) and New Zealand and Australia (2 copies).
Murtoli tart recipe by Jean Neel
Add this recipe to your Bookshelf (click the blue
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Serves 4
Equipment: an electric mixer, an ovenproof dish, a tart ring base
- 50 g (1¾ oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 50 g (1¾ oz) ground hazelnuts
- 100 g (3½ oz) butter
- 100 g (3½ oz) smoked Sartène cheese or parmesan cheese, grated
- 1 egg
- 2 eggplants (aubergines)
- 2 zucchini (courgettes)
- 3 onions
- 8 tomatoes
- 190 ml (6½ fl oz/¾ cup) olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
- salt and pepper
- 350 g (12½ oz) fresh brocciu cheese or firm ricotta
- 10 g (¼ oz) marjoram and mint
The day before
In an electric mixer, combine the flour, ground hazelnuts, butter, cheese, egg and 2 teaspoons water. Form into a smooth ball. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
On the day
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
Cut the eggplants, zucchini, onions and tomatoes into 5 mm (¼ in) slices and lay them, overlapping, in an ovenproof dish. Moisten with a drizzle of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake for about 25 minutes.
Reduce the oven temperature to 160°C (320°F).
Roll out the dough to a 5 mm (¼ in) thick circle and line the base of a tart tin. Prick with a fork and bake until light brown.
Return the oven temperature to 180°C (350°F). Mash the brocciu with a fork, then incorporate the olive oil and herbs. Season with salt and pepper.
Carefully arrange the roasted vegetables on the pastry, alternating the layers with brocciu. Scatter over a few pieces of brocciu to finish and bake for 20 minutes.
To drink A rosé from Clos Canarelli.
Notes: I owe this recipe to Jean Neel, when he was the chef at Domaine de Murtoli, in Sartène. My friends and I were truly addicted to his cheese and hazelnut sable pastry in particular.
Of course, this recipe is seasonal, but I admit that when in
winter I have the desire to recreate the ambiance of that vineyard
on my plate, I crack and use vegetables that aren’t quite from the
right season…but the pastry, that’s always there. This dish can
be served warm or cold.
Recipe excerpt courtesy of Smith Street Books from Corsica: The
Recipes by Nicolas Stromboni. Photography by Sandra
Mahut.
The publisher is offering four copies of this book to EYB Members in the US, NZ and AU. One of the entry options is to answer the following question in the comments section of this blog post.
Which recipe in the index would you try first?
Please note that you must be logged into the Rafflecopter contest before posting or your entry won’t be counted. For more information on this process, please see our step-by-step help post. Be sure to check your spam filters to receive our email notifications. Prizes can take up to 6 weeks to arrive from the publishers. If you are not already a Member, you can join at no cost. The contest ends at midnight on April 25th, 2018.
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