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1
Heat the oven to 140 °C. Place the bone-in leg or shoulder of agneau de lait into the tianu — a deep terracotta casserole. Tuck the garlic, nepita, and rosemary around the meat. Pour in the Corsican white wine and Corsican olive oil. The aromatics and liquid should surround, not submerge, the joint.
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2
Mix the flour and water to a stiff, pliable dough. Roll it into a long rope and press it firmly along the seam between the tianu and its lid, sealing the vessel completely. This is where the dish lives or dies: the seal must be airtight — any gap allows steam to escape, the braise becomes a roast, and the characteristic yielding, falling-from-bone texture is lost.
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3
Place the sealed tianu in the oven — wood-fired if available, conventional if not — and cook at 140 °C for four hours without disturbance. The luting dough will harden and hold its seal throughout; do not open the casserole during cooking.
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4
At table, break the luting dough with a knife and remove the lid. The meat should be falling from the bone, the lamb fat a pale gold, the surface entirely unabraded — no crisping, no browning. This is the visual confirmation of a correctly sealed braise.
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5
Ladle the braising juices into a small pan. Add a splash of Corsican white wine and reduce by half over moderate heat, without thickener or cream. The lamb collagen provides all the body required. Taste: the sauce should carry clean white-wine acidity, sweet milk-fat lamb, and the nepita-herb through the finish. No gamey note should be present; if it is, the animal was not milk-fed.
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6
Warm the olive oil in a wide pan over moderate heat. Add the sliced garlic and allow it to soften without colour. Add the podded fèves and the nepita sprigs. Sauté briefly until the beans are tender but still vivid green, bright in the pan.
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7
Serve the tianu directly at table — the Corsican form of service. Portion the lamb from the bone, spoon the reduced sauce over, and accompany with the sautéed fèves and sliced pain de châtaigne.