Small square and gourmet pasta, crozets were once eaten with "red spices" and a little cheese on holidays.
Their consumption has evolved and we now find crozets often in croziflettes, even in risotto.
Europe 1 tells you the story of this emblematic dish from Savoy and in particular from Méribel.
These small square pâtés are emblematic of Savoy and more particularly of Méribel.
Crozets are said to have originated in the Tarentaise valley in the 17th century and a heritage from our Italian neighbors.
In any case, there are no written traces on this pasta which dates from before.
This Saturday, Europe 1 will retrace the history of this dish and the developments concerning its consumption.
Today, crozets are eaten regularly in croziflettes, that is to say tartiflettes without potatoes but with crozets, even in risotto.
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Small pasta to satisfy mountain dwellers according to legend
But before you bite into them, who has never wondered why crozets have a square shape?
It is above all for simplicity and for this pasta to cook faster.
But according to legend, this search for simplicity was aimed at satisfying the mountain dwellers: small pasta took up less space in their backpack.
The word “crozet” comes from the word “croé” which in Savoy designates everything that is small.
Crozets are made with the ingredients usually found in a house: water, salt, eggs and wheat or buckwheat flour, depending on the harvest and the seasons at the time.
In Savoie, buckwheat was very present until the 1950s.
"With the buckwheat flour, they made a dough, like a bread dough. They rolled it, like a pie, very flat. And they cut out the little squares, dried them in the bedrooms, on sheets, in the drafts. 'air ", says Mado Gacon, one of Méribel's living memories, at the microphone of Europe 1." It was the women who made the pasta, so they cooked their crozets like pasta. And then they seasoned with it. red spices, black butter, melted butter and very hot, as well as grated cheese: Beaufort when you had some or Tomme. It was still a luxury product because it was for the days of holidays."
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These red spices are a mixture of peppers, cloves, savory and rosemary that were used to flavor cured meats and to give flavor to dishes, because there was no pepper.
Today, we no longer make crozets by hand, a technique that is of course too long and tedious.
The professionalization of the production of crozets, we owe it to a man from the valley: François Fraissard.
In the 1950s, he was the first to market them by making them first by hand, then with a homemade machine.
Then he passed on his manufacturing process to the Chiron family that we know today as Alpina Savoie.
The recipe for crozets
Ingredients:
300 g of wheat flour
200 g buckwheat flour
1 egg
15 cl of water
Preparation:
1.
Start by mixing the two flours.
2.
In a bowl, beat the egg with the water.
Gradually add the flour.
Initially, mix with a wooden spatula and then with your hands.
3.
This dough must be kneaded well for about twenty minutes.
It must be dense.
4.
Once the dough is ready, roll out pieces with a rolling pin.
It must be quite thin (about 2 mm thick).
Cut this dough into thin strips in one direction and the other to make small dice.
5.
Flour the dough if necessary so that they do not stick together.
6.
Remove the excess flour and immerse the crozets in boiling salted water.
7.
Leave to cook for about 10 minutes.
Crozets with croziflette ...
From now on, crozets are best eaten as a gratin.
The recipe has evolved: from a simple dish of "pasta" with spices and cheese, which we ate with sausages, we made a delicacy that gratinates in the oven.
And even a tartiflette, without potatoes but with crozets, the croziflette!
These are crozets cooked in a gratin dish with onions, bacon, crème fraîche and reblochon.
The croziflette recipe
Ingredients:
300 g of crozets
250 g of bacon (or five slices of raw ham)
1 onion
1 reblochon
50 cl of fresh cream
Preparation:
1.
Brown the chopped onion in butter
2.
Cook the crozets
3.
When the onion is golden brown, set aside.
Brown the bacon.
4.
Cut the reblochon in half, lengthwise.
Cut one half into cubes.
5.
Combine the onion, bacon, diced reblochon, cooked crozets and crème fraîche in a salad bowl.
Distribute in a gratin dish.
Place the reblochon cut in half over the crust on the crozets.
6.
Brown for 10 minutes at 180 ° C.
... then with risotto
And in Méribel, restaurateurs have created their own recipe based on crozets.
This is a crozet risotto with leeks and porcini mushrooms.
Just cook the crozets raw, as if you were making a risotto, with rice.
Then sprinkle them with Savoy white wine and broth.
And at the end of cooking, add the steamed leek whites and the porcini mushrooms returned to the pan and sliced.
Another way to taste these small square pasta with which you can drink a glass of white wine used in the recipe or a Mondeuse red wine.
The recipe for Méribel crozets
Ingredients:
300 g buckwheat crozets
100 g of porcini mushrooms
100 g of leek whites
Beaufort shavings
10 cl of white wine from Savoie (Apremont)
2 tablespoons of heavy cream
2 liters of vegetable broth
Olive oil
Chopped garlic
Salt and pepper
Preparation:
1. Steam the leek whites.
Reserve.
2. Slice the porcini mushrooms and brown them in a pan with a little oil and the previously chopped garlic.
Reserve.
3. In a sauté pan, heat olive oil.
When hot, add the raw crozets.
It is necessary to coat them well with olive oil, before sprinkling them with white wine.
When the wine is absorbed, add the vegetable broth ladle by ladle.
It is necessary that the broth is absorbed, before putting a new ladle.
4. At the end of cooking, add the leeks and porcini mushrooms.
Mix, before seasoning and adding the cream off the heat.
5. Sprinkle with Beaufort shavings and serve.