Pays du Cassoulet
Less well known than its cousin the cassoulet with duck confit, this dessert will surprise and delight you! The cassole is imitated by nougatine (be careful with your teeth!) and the inside is made of ice cream.
It is a very popular dessert in summer, which can be flavoured with different aromas: rum raison, lemon, vanilla….. and why not be tempted by bean ice cream? Yes, it does exist!
To be found in all good bakeries and pastry shops!
Recipe submitted by Pâtisserie Belloc, an old-fashioned shop with lots of delicious cakes, including alleluias and glorias.
Alleluias are dry biscuits flavoured with citron and the gloria is a kind of cake from Savoie flavoured with lemon and almonds. Alleluia has a very distant origin. Around 1800, a soldier of the Empire who stopped over in our country gave the recipe to a pastry chef. When Pope Pius VII arrived in 1814, staying in the hotel opposite the factory (now the Hôtel de France), the confectioner Izard offered him his specialities. The pope exclaimed “Alleluia”! This is how this dessert got its name!
The cassoulet of Castelnaudary is the best in the world. Made with beans from the Lauragais region, sausage, bacon and duck (or goose) confit, it is the region’s must-try dish. It has to be cooked in a terracotta cassole (ideally from Poterie NOT) for at least three hours. Accompanied by Malepère wine…it is divine!
The “Le Castel” or “Castelnaudary” cake remains one of the most popular desserts in the Lauragais, along with the iced cassoulet. It is very similar to the Russian cake with its roasted almonds on the side. A very simple recipe but still delicious!
The Castelnaudary lingot bean is the ingredient you need to make a real cassoulet. This variety (the lingot) has a thin skin which makes it very digestible. 200 tons per year are cultivated in the Lauragais region, in 69 communes, which has earned it the IGP label.
The bean is harvested in August, hence the Cassoulet Festival which celebrates this highlight of the year.
