Corsica Italian Delicatessen — Restaurant in Los Angeles

In Sunland-Tujunga there is a tiny jewel of a Mercato Italiano called Corsica Deli that serves fresh Tramezzini/sandwiches not only of Italian meats & cheeses, but turkey, roast beef, ham, pastrami, corned beef, etc on all kinds of different rolls. After all, it's Italian American, and the possible combinations seem infinite.

The bright red, green, white Corsica sign caught my curiosity since Corsica under Genovese rule became part of France in 1769. The most famous son of Corsica was Napoléon Buonaparte whose family changed it to a more francoized spelling of Bonaparte. Mary, the owner, explained that the her father was originally from Calabria in Southern Italy but was raised in Corsica. Corsica sounded catchy so the name stuck.

For such a tiny store, there is a huge variety of Italian goods & prepared foods to take out. Talking with Mary, I found out her "la passione" for cooking. She has frozen soups, Lasagna, Zitti, etc.

Due to a previous customer ordering a philly sandwich & not returning to pay & pick it up, Mary kindly offered me the sandwich. It was excellent roast beef, swiss cheese, sautéed onion & red bell pepper.

It was a warm sandwich so all the milky cheese favour melded to the sweet caramelized onions, red bell, & meaty beefy Umami. I took it home & added crunchy cauliflower, shredded cabbage, red onion, & home grown ruccola con folie verde/arrugula for a fresh vegetal touch. Favoloso! Grazie per la ospitalità Italiana!

I bought Panettone, & Torrone which is Nougat egg whites containing almonds, honey w/ addition of either lemon, orange zest, or vanilla as a gift.

Sorpressata Salame (sah lah meh) has meaty, slightly sour, fermented porky meatiness enlivened by smoky, piquant fresh black peppercorn.

Prosciutto di Parma "ham" is buttery, creamy, fermented porkiness, lightly salted to ironically bring out the sweetness.

Cannoli Siciliani are large fried crispy pastry tubes filled w/ a generous filling of whipped dairy sweet Ricotta cheese. Mine had addition of orange zest & dark chocolate bits.

I took the liberty of drizzling Amaretto di Saronno which infused into the pastry tube to add a Marzipan flavour. Irish Breakfast tea paired well.

With Mary's expert culinary abilities, she is able to provide excellent catering in terms of party platters such as lush sandwiches; Salumi/salami & Formaggi/cheeses platters; Paste/pastas of all kinds including Lasagna. Great for effortless entertaining for all get-togethers.

She can make gift baskets full of tasty Italian comestibles & Dolci/sweets for any occasion. Easter is coming up so go and get a basket that is full of interesting things to eat. Not the usual boring marshmallow peeps & hackneyed chocolate bunnies.

What makes Corsica so special is Mary. Her enthusiasm & love for all things Italian is contagious. When she finds out that her customers also appreciate la cucina e la tradizione Italiana, she will regale you w/ tales of her trips to Italia, exeriences in cooking Italian, etc.

This was like an amazing field trip to the Italian cultural realm. I'm sure given the chance, Mary can be as proficient in relating to the French Canadian traditions since she is Québécoise coming with her family to California long ago.

Corsica has now become my go to store for Italian food. She is superior to Eataly, the mega Italian market in Century City that is a thousand times bigger. Why? Because she deeply cares & has great pride in all the things she makes & sells which is becoming rarer to find...

Didn’t expect to walk into this place the other day but I’m glad I did. It’s a very small Italian joint more for quick eats or to go. You can bring your family of 4 but it would probably be better to order out since this spot is so small. They offer frozen soups, ravioli, cannoli, stuffed shells, alfredo sauce, eggplant parm, lasagna, again all frozen so plan ahead when heating. They also have sides like pasta salad, marinated mushrooms, potato salads, macaroni, pickles, desserts…. Yes, a one stop shop – they do have ingredients to bring home and make stuff, pasta and sauce. Personally, I don’t need a ton of meat on my sando because I find it to be very salty with the cured meats. This would be the reason why I don’t want to pay $24 for a sando and I think that’s way too much. But if in the case I was sharing with let’s say 2 other people and I brought an extra roll it would be worth it since I could separate the meat. Nonetheless, $24 for a sandwich is crazy (missing star) Oh also, after reading some reviews, yes the rolls are soft more of a French bread type, I do prefer a tougher Italian...

I have been wanting to try their food for over 25 years. I heard about them from weatherman Mark Kristi from KTLA morning news. When we could not find a reservation for Christmas dinner, we decided to pick up food from Corsica deli. We had chicken Parmesan, stuffed shells, vegetarian lasagna with Alfredo sauce, and we couldn’t leave without some cannolis stuffed with Nutella. The meal was absolutely out of this world on Christmas Day. It was better than anything we could have gotten from any restaurant. I cannot wait to go back and try some of the other items , I am very excited to try their sandwiches as well. We did have some sticker shock with the prices, but after eating the meal, it was worth every penny. You do realize that you do have to pay for quality. The place definitely reminds me of the traditional Italian delis from back home in New York. It was definitely well worth the drive from Glendale to pick it up. Merry...