Corsican

Veau aux Olives Corse — Corsican Veal with Island Olives

Veau aux olives corse is the island's signature veal braise — distinct from its French and Italian cognates by the olives used (Corsican Sabine variety, grown in the Balagne and Alta Rocca, smaller and more bitter-resinous than Niçoise or Ligurian olives) and the maquis aromatic base. The veal — typically the shoulder or breast — is browned in Corsican olive-oil with shallots and garlic, deglazed with Corsican white wine (Vermentino di Corse), then braised in a sealed tianu with pitted Corsican green olives, cédrat zest, and a bundle of nepita and rosemary for two and a half hours at 150°C. The olives break down partially during the braise, releasing their oil into the braising liquid and creating a sauce that is at once bitter-fruity, herbal, and deeply Corsican. The cédrat zest added in the final thirty minutes lifts the olive richness with a floral-citrus note. Served directly from the tianu over white rice or with chestnut bread.

‹Swipe for the next dish›

ServesFour portions

Total3 hours (30 minutes active; 2½ hours braising)

Sourced0of 9 in BC

Cook

‹ Previous · Tripette Corsicane — Tripe Braised with Maquis Herbs

The Market List

The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.

1.2 kg

veal shoulder or breast

cut into large braising pieces

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

60 ml

Corsican olive oil

Your own market

shallots

finely sliced

Your own market

garlic cloves

crushed

Your own market

200 ml

Vermentino di Corse

Corsican white wine, for deglazing

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

200 g

Corsican Sabine green olives

pitted; reserve 12 whole for finishing

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

cédrat (citron)

zest only, added in final 30 minutes

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

bundle nepita and rosemary

tied together; removed before service

Your own market

To serve

300 g

white rice

cooked separately; or chestnut bread

Your own market

The Method

Heat the Corsican olive oil in the tianu over a medium-high flame. Brown the veal pieces in batches, turning to colour all surfaces evenly. The veal is ready to turn when each face releases cleanly from the vessel and carries a deep amber crust.

Reduce to medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic to the fat remaining in the tianu and soften without colouring. Pour in the Vermentino di Corse and scrape the base of the vessel. The deglazing is complete when the sharp alcohol smell has given way to a rounded wine note and the liquid is reduced by half.

From the canon — Vermentino — locally called Malvoisie de Corse — is the dominant white grape of all five Corsican AOC appellations, producing the island's characteristic whi… Vermentino di Corse — The Island's White Wine Identity →

Return the veal to the tianu. Scatter the pitted Corsican Sabine olives around and over the meat. Nestle the nepita-and-rosemary bundle among the pieces. Seal the tianu tightly with its lid — or with foil pressed firm beneath the lid — and transfer to an oven at 150 °C. Braise for two hours undisturbed. This is where the dish lives or dies: the sealed vessel traps the olive oil released by the Sabine olives, which self-bastes the veal continuously; breaking the seal early dissipates this accumulation and yields a thin, unintegrated sauce.

After two hours, lift the lid and add the cédrat zest only at this point — no earlier, so that the floral volatile compounds are preserved. Re-seal and return to the oven for a further thirty minutes. The dish is ready when the veal is falling-tender and the sauce is olive-oil-enriched and slightly thickened, with the broken-down olives dispersed through it.

Remove and discard the herb bundle. Scatter the reserved twelve whole Sabine olives across the surface of the tianu. Taste the sauce: it should carry veal sweetness, a bitter-resinous olive richness, and a floral cédrat lift on the finish, with maquis herbs throughout. A one-dimensional olive-oil flavour without complexity indicates the wrong olive variety was used.

Serve directly from the tianu over white rice or alongside chestnut bread. The whole olives on top provide textural contrast against the broken-down olives in the sauce.

III

Quality Hierarchy

Reserve — Corsican Sabine olives from a named Balagne or Alta Rocca producer, hand-harvested; Vermentino di Corse from a domaine with appellation AOC Vin de Corse; veal raised on Corsican pasture.

Estate — Corsican Sabine olives from a reliable island source; a sound Vermentino di Corse; quality continental veal shoulder.

Market — Corsican olive oil; green olives of the smallest, most resinous variety available (not Kalamata); a dry, unoaked Vermentino from Sardinia as the closest substitute wine.

House — Any good Corsican or Sardinian olive oil; the most bitter-tasting green olives available, pitted; a dry white wine for deglazing. The dish will be plausible but lacks the defining bitter-resinous character of the Sabine variety.

Sensory Tests

◇Sight. Sauce is olive-oil-enriched and slightly thickened; most olives broken down into the sauce; twelve reserved whole olives visible on top; veal falling tender when pressed with a spoon.

◇Smell. Maquis herbs — nepita and rosemary — detectable throughout the braising steam when the lid is lifted; no raw wine sharpness.

◇Touch. Veal pieces yield without resistance under light pressure from a spoon; no stringy or taut fibres.

◇Where it lives or dies. The sealed tianu must remain unbroken for the full two-hour braise: it is the continuous self-basting by olive oil released from the Sabine olives that builds the dish's resinous, integrated sauce — and the cédrat zest must not enter until the final thirty minutes, or its floral character is lost entirely.

Pillar V

Cross-cuisine parallels are part of membership.

The dishes this one teaches you, across the cuisines — on every recipe.

Enter · from $49 a year