page_title: Cuisine of Corsica
section_title: Chestnut
hierarchical_section_title: Cuisine of Corsica / Typical products / Chestnut
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Évisa, Ouest Corse (Corse) - Châtaignes vertes
context_page_description: The cuisine of Corsica is the traditional cuisine of the island of Corsica. It is mainly based on the products of the island, and due to historical and geographical reasons, has much in common with Italian cuisine, and marginally with those of Nice and Provence.
context_section_description: Large-scale cultivation of the chestnut tree was introduced in Corsica during the Genoese domination. Rich in calories, the fruits were plucked (without gloves) and dried, and placed on a wooden grating (Corsican: a grata) above a fire (Corsican: u fucone) for one month: this fire, placed on a dry clay base 1 m² wide and 20 cm thick, smokes also the charcuterie and heats the house. After that, they were ground to produce chestnut flour, which gets an unmistakable smoke flavour from this process. The unplucked chestnuts are eaten by the pigs foraging in the forest. They are additionally fed with chestnut flour, so that their meat acquires a characteristic taste. Used to prepare polenta (Corsican: pulenta, pulenda) and cakes, this flour was the basic staple food. The importance of chestnut in Corsican life can be seen from the fact that during a traditional wedding lunch taking place in 19th century Castagniccia, not less than 22 different courses were prepared using chestnuts as the main ingredient.
  Today chestnut flour is a French AOC and a European AOP, under the name "Farine de châtaigne corse-Farina castagnina corsa". 
  At the end of 20th century, 85% (1,200 tonnes) of the chestnuts plucked in Corsica were ground into flour, uniquely among all the French departments. The 300 t of flour so obtained were consumed almost totally in Corsica, a small part was exported to mainland France and bought by Corsicans of the diaspora.
  Chestnut and its products are the centrepiece of two yearly fairs in Corsica: A Fiera di a Castagna in Bocognano, which takes place at the beginning of December  and the Fête du Marron occurring at Évisa at the end of November.
caption: Corsican chestnuts from Evisa
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