At Cookie we are going back to first principals to bring you some of the best Italian products and mix them with the best of Scotland. Things that you will hard to find even in Italy. All brought to you direct from the people that make them.

Simply the best of Italy.

We have a return of some favourite Cookie products such as Pecorino from Sardinia, “Fiore Sardo” the Flower Sardinia, of ready to marry with great British Pears. New treats like Ciauscolo from Vitto, a spreading salami, to cover Cookie crostini. Coppa to sit next to toast and a rocket and orange salad. Some of the things we bring in might be a bit obscure so here are some pictures whet your appetites and give you an idea of where they are from.

La Tuscia

We also have a Pecorino from the La Tuscia, once centre of the Etruscan civilisation, La Tuscia is North of Rome bordering on Tuscany and part of  the Maremma, home to the first cowboys. This pecorino is a slightly milder cheese mixed with goats milk. Great for runner beans when they come into season and for the moment with home made chutneys such as apple and mustered.

We have a whole range of Charcuterie from our friends in Umbria

Great Guanciale “pork cheek” for our pasta

Cured in red wine for 20 days rolled in fennel seeds pepper chilli and salt  stronger in flavour than Pancetta and the perfect base for a Carbonara or the non eggy version, Gricia or a great all’amatriciana.

Capocollo

Capocollo is a cured pork shoulder, soaked in white wine, salted and peppered and hung to cure.

Ciauscolo from Vitto

This soft sausage has a bold and assertive flavour and tenderness. It is made with shoulder and bacon meat, which is repeatedly minced to obtain a creamy texture. Mixed with black truffle and allowed to air-dry for 2 weeks. Delicious when spread on a slice of crusty Cookie bread and accompanied with slivers of green apple, or a little honey.

Corallina Salami

The original and most famous of Umbrian salami is made from the best cuts of pork following a traditional and age-old recipe. The meat is expertly hand-cut to obtain the correct balance of meat and fat. It is flavored with whole and crushed black peppercorns, garlic and salt, hand-tied in the pork gut and aged for up to 40 days.

Coppa di testa

This is a cooked meat like a marbled terrine with a delicate aromatic taste.

It is cut wafer thin like ham, it is seasoned with garlic, black pepper and salt, orange peel and lemon, it is steamed in a jute bag.

It can be served in thin slices with rucola and mature pecorino, toast and a slice of orange on the side to add to that citrus edge. It goes well with a glass of robust red wine. 

 

 

We are organising our Christmas supply of wines, cheeses, shipping our new olive oil and bringing in pulses and cereals for the New Year. All these will be in just in time for Christmas.

I’m just off the phone one of our suppliers Franco Santucci. Franco is the manager for Le Poggette, one of our wine suppliers. He is also the commissionaire for agriculture in this part of Italy. He helps me source some of the greatest products from this part of Italy.

This year Franco picked up for the second time The Veronelli Prize for the best wine in Category with their Torre Maggiore. That is like winning an Oscar in the wine business of Italy. It is a Montepulciano grape which they have turned into an amazing experience.

We will also bring in their Colli Amerino which is based on the central Italian grape Sangiovese and the third wine we stock from Franco is Canaiolo, a less well know grape but you will probably have drunk it in the blend of a good Chianti.

http://www.fattorialepoggette.it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaiolo

Our House wine has from day one developed a big following. It is by Alessandro at Sandonna. It is simply great drinking red, the perfect “vino rosso”. One of the reasons this has been so successful is the fact that it is unfiltered. It is an honest farm wine, created by someone who is skilled in modern for winemaking techniques. This gives you a taste that is almost lost today’s offer of low and mid range wines which are more than not doctored in one way or another. Here is something truly natural and of quality.

The wine business is tough and Alessandro like many people in this industry need a second job to keep the show on the road.  So when he is not in the cantina or the field he works for the National Railways. We are the first people to have exported his wines, helping him to deal with customs arrangements and transportation documentation. He has rebottled his Merlot under the name Selve di Giove and we import from him another less well know grape Ciliegiolo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciliegiolo

Lentils are eaten in Italy at New year as a symbol of prosperity
http://www.bettinibio.com/

Have you ever had lentils and sausage at Cookie? Or tried our farro soup.
Umbria has a long history of pulses and cereals. We import these from the Bettini farm who are certified organic producers.

From here we import ancient grains like Farro (spelt) and the famous lentils from Castelluccio “lenticchia di Castelluccio di Norcia IGP” which compete on the world stage with the green lentils from le Puy en Velay

We were all very pleased about getting such a great review from Joanna Blythman. One of the great things about it for the team was the technical content. She is professional and it is about the food. She captured what we are trying to do and in doing so gave us great reward for our effort. She speaks with knowledge and understanding.

Her focus on our Italian products made us think, maybe we should tell the story behind some of the products we have at Cookie, as each one has a story to tell. …read more…

Last weekend in February

Over the weekend of the 26th-27th and 28th Cookie will be taken over and run by an Italian farmhouse kitchen. The whole farm moves from Umbria to the South side of Glasgow just for this weekend, bringing with them their own wine, oil and home grown produce. They will be making home made pasta, roasting their own chicory, bottled tomatoes, ducks and guinea fowl and serving up the original flavours of an Italian farmhouse kitchen.