The biggest cycling event of the year, the Tour de France, just got underway today. This year marks the hundredth anniversary of by far the toughest race on Earth that runs three weeks covering well over 2000 miles through the spectacular flats, hills and mountains of France.

As a lifelong cyclist and big tour fan, this year I’m researching some of the foods particular to the major regions the tour will ride through. For the first time ever, the first three days of the tour will be on the island of Corsica just southeast of France and west of Italy in the Mediterranean Sea. As you might well imagine just by its sheer location, the food on Corsica is a fantastically rich blend of French and Italian flavors.

I first read about the unique and incredibly flavorful Corsican prosciutto, mozzarella cheese and egg calzone in a well-written and gorgeously photographed blog about Corsican food and drink by New York caterer Elisabeth Weinberg. While reading the article and looking at the pictures – and no-kidding emoting out loud like I was at a fireworks show – I put Corsica on my mental list of places I’ve gotta’ see and then put together a step-by-step picture book recipe for the calzone you can get by clicking either this like or the top or bottom picture on this page.