crozets

Crozets are the small flat pasta squares of Savoy, cut from buckwheat or wheat dough into pieces about a centimeter across. They are among the oldest pasta traditions in the French Alps, predating the widespread adoption of Italian pasta culture in France. The name crozet comes from the Savoyard Francoprovençal word for cross, croz or croset, a diminutive of the Latin crux. The connection is loose: the pasta squares do not look like crosses, and the name more likely refers to the crossing cuts made when dicing the rolled dough.

Crozets appear in historical records from the Tarentaise and Maurienne valleys of Savoy by the seventeenth century. They were a winter food, made from buckwheat that grew at altitude and stored well through Alpine winters when fresh provisions were scarce. Buckwheat reached Savoy from the east through Alpine trade routes by the fifteenth century, and its French name blé sarrasin, Saracen grain, reflects the assumption that it came from the Islamic world, though it actually originated in China and traveled west via Central Asia.

The classic preparation is crozets de Savoie à la Beaufort, baked in the oven with Beaufort cheese and lardons in a gratin. Beaufort is the great aged cow's milk cheese of the Tarentaise valley, pressed into large wheels and matured for months in alpine caves. The pairing of crozets with Beaufort is so standard in Savoyard cooking that the two appear inseparable on regional menus, each amplifying the other's depth.

Modern crozets are made by a handful of Savoyard producers, most notably the Alpina company in Moûtiers, which has been pressing and drying them since the early twentieth century. The European Union granted crozets de Savoie a Protected Geographical Indication in 2020, confirming that only pasta made in the Savoie and Haute-Savoie departments from traditional recipes qualifies for the name. The designation arrived late for a food already centuries old.