Agneau de Pâques Corse — Easter Lamb: The Island Preparation

Corsica — island-wide Easter preparation; tianu method most associated with the interior villages.

The Corsican Easter lamb preparation is inseparable from the pastoral cycle that also produces brocciu: the same Corsican milk-fed lambs (agneau de lait corse) whose mothers' milk goes to brocciu production are, at Easter, the central protein of the island's most important celebratory meal. Unlike cabri rôti (spit-roasted kid, the spring-general celebration), the Easter lamb preparation in most Corsican families involves the tianu: the bone-in leg or shoulder is placed in a deep terracotta casserole with garlic, nepita, rosemary, Corsican white wine, and Corsican olive-oil, sealed with a luting-dough band, and cooked at 140°C for four hours in a wood-fired oven — the slow braise producing a yielding, aromatic meat that falls from the bone and is served directly from the tianu at table. Side accompaniments: broad beans (fèves) — the first spring vegetable — sautéed with garlic and nepita, and pain de châtaigne.

• Lechazo de Castilla (Spain — milk-fed lamb roast parallel)
• Gigot d'agneau de Pauillac (Bordeaux — milk-fed lamb, French mainland cognate)
• Abbacchio al forno (Rome — Easter milk-fed lamb, Italian parallel)

Milk-fat lamb sweetness; nepita-rosemary aromatic; Corsican white wine lift; yielding, falling-from-bone texture; pastoral and celebratory.