CESTO MANIFESTO | CHRISTMAS 2022

Lamo Ottavianello is a manifesto of the commitment of a local agricultural company to recovering indigenous cultivars and Apulian wine traditions, for the protection of Puglia’s enogastronomic heritage and biodiversity. The Ottavianello from which Lamo is produced is grown in the vineyard of Ostuni, just under a hectare regenerated by Tenute Rubino to preserve a rare but extremely typical variety of Puglia and Salento.

Tenute Rubino is an agricultural enterprise project that combines a passion for the ancient art of winemaking with a modern and forward-thinking vision. The brand was born in 1999 from an idea by Luigi Rubino, who, together with his wife Romina Leopardi, harnessed his father’s entrepreneurial legacy with the goal of enhancing Salento’s historic grape varieties. The work of reevaluating indigenous grape varieties finds its identity in the safeguarding of the ancient Brindisi variety Susumaniello, continuing with Minutolo and Ottavianello, in constant respect for environmental sustainability.

Lamo Ottavianello - Red / DOC / Vineyard of Ostuni / 13% vol. / To be sipped with a dish of tagliatelle alla bolognese, saltimbocca alla romana, stuffed eggplants, fried meatballs, oven-baked lamb with potatoes, or medium-aged cheeses. / 0.75 l  

Fichi Mandorlati Monaco Rocco is a manifesto of the commitment of a small local agricultural company to recovering ancient crops, fruits, varieties, and traditions, for the protection of Apulia’s gastronomic heritage and biodiversity. Once considered a poor traditional product, Fichi Mandorlati Monaco Rocco is now appreciated as a delicious dessert and has been certified with a DE.CO. (municipal designation of origin) since 2022.

The Monaco Rocco agricultural company is a small family-run business established in 2009 in San Michele Salentino, with the primary goal of preserving biodiversity and promoting the typical products of the Alto Salento countryside. The raw materials are processed exclusively during the harvest periods to ensure freshness and quality.

Sun-dried figs with a natural sweetness, made special by the citrusy note of lemon zest added before marrying the figs with local almonds. The roasted almond skin adds a slight bitter note, enriched by the balsamic touch of wild fennel seeds. / 300 gr  

La Comune Sfruttazero is a manifesto of mutual aid, reciprocal support, and collaboration between small producers and excellent rural realities in the Apulian territory, which Diritti a Sud has always promoted as one of its founding values. La Comune is made with tomatoes grown by Luna Laboratorio Rurale and Società Cooperativa Agricola Karadrà, both symbols of peasant, solidarity-based, and territorial agriculture, respectful of labor and nature, and filled with love for their land.

Diritti a Sud was born in 2014 in the countryside around Nardò, as an association of activists committed to the protection of people’s fundamental rights. Diritti a Sud operates in three main areas: the protection of rights, popular education, and agroecology. Together with Solidaria Bari, it is a promoter of the Sfruttazero project and one of the founding nodes of the national anticapitalist network Fuorimercato – Self-management in Movement.

Passata La Comune: 0% preservatives, 0% pesticides, 100% tomatoes grown in Salento: Tombolone (Karadrà), Tombolino (Luna), San Marzano (Karadrà), Winter Tomato (Karadrà). / 580 ml

Apearium honey is a manifesto of the commitment of a small production company to the recovery of local biodiversity and the protection of the natural ecosystem through the defense and protection of bees and their essential role. Apearium honey draws attention to the beneficial activity of bees for agriculture, enabling reduced use of agrochemicals that are lethal to pollinating insects, thus increasing the biodiversity of the ecosystem.

A bee enthusiast since 2008, after attending a beekeeping course at the University of Bari and gaining years of experience independently and with other beekeepers, Luigi Lanzillotti founded Apearium in 2020. The name Apearium derives from the term “apiary,” which refers to the group of beehives in a specific location.

Summer wildflower honey with a distinctive amber color, produced in the Torre Guaceto reserve area in July, characterized by nectar collected from eucalyptus flowers and honeydew gathered from the same plants, which are very common in the area. / 500 gr 

Cacioricotta Lanzillotti is a manifesto of a local production company committed to promoting production models that create a direct link between producers and consumers and enhance high-quality products from the territory that respect the environment and animal welfare. The Lanzillotti Dairy, in consortium with Masseria Veneri, founded the “Community of Dairy Producers of Alto Salento,” listed among the 1200 Food Communities worldwide at the “Terra Madre” event, conceived by Carlo Petrini, President of Slow Food. Later, Masseria Bennardi also joined the community. The food communities represent a development inextricably linked to the environmental well-being of the planet and the economic survival of local communities, placing the conviction that “eating is an agricultural act and producing is a gastronomic act” at the center of the discussion.

The Lanzillotti Dairy was founded in 1977 in San Vito dei Normanni (Br) and quickly became a reference point for the production of high-quality dairy products tied to the respect and enhancement of the territory. The Lanzillotti family, now in its third generation, continues to work with genuine and natural raw materials—only local raw milk—and traditional techniques, offering typical local cheeses, both fresh and aged, of excellence.

Mixed cacioricotta made from sheep’s and cow’s milk. / 300 gr 

Karadrà sun-dried tomatoes are a manifesto of a cooperative and community-based multifunctional reality, founded on the construction of community bonds, solidarity, mutual aid, and the protection of workers’ dignity, as well as being actively engaged in promoting innovative agricultural models for soil and resource conservation, the recovery of local biodiversity, and the protection of the natural and cultural heritage of the territory.

Karadrà is an agricultural cooperative that promotes projects related to the new concept of multifunctionality, which gives agriculture, in addition to its primary task of production, the responsibility to build communities, protect the cultural and natural heritage of a territory, and redesign its lines. The cooperative specializes in aridiculture, a practice aimed at enabling cultivation in arid environments, i.e., without irrigation and with minimal rainfall. This is where the commitment to recovering local biodiversity comes from, to bring natural products to the market that grow in harmony with the land and water resources at competitive costs. Karadrà has long been engaged in the recovery and protection of the Aradeo storage tomato, a unique product for its particular characteristics, grown in aridiculture and now a symbol of the local community’s redemption.

San Marzano tomatoes, sun-dried and then cooked in water and vinegar. / 150 gr

The taralli from Forno a Legna a Pietra da Angelo Ruggiero, made with XFARM EVO Manifesto oil, are a manifesto of the collaboration between XFARM and a family-run production reality that has been committed for decades to safeguarding and promoting the ancient traditional bread-making techniques, in a spirit of mutual aid, sharing, and building community bonds.

The Wood-Fired Oven by Angelo Ruggiero is the oldest oven in San Vito dei Normanni, with its construction dating back to before its registration in the land registry in 1944. For years, it was the only existing oven in the city, thus serving as the communal oven for the citizens who used to gather to share the bread-baking process. Although several generations of the Ruggiero family have passed, the oven has always been active, never once going out. Angelo Ruggiero, the master baker of the family, has been practicing the profession since he was 13 years old and has learned the oldest bread-making traditions of the area.

Taralli with white wine, soft wheat flour "00"/N, white wine, EVO Manifesto oil, salt. / 350 gr 

Manifesto is the extra virgin olive oil from XFARM Agricoltura prossima, a symbol of the economic, social, and ecological redemption of our land, produced from 35 hectares of olive groves that we have rescued from abandonment through soil regeneration practices, polyconic pruning, and organic treatments on the plants.

Olio extravergine di oliva Manifesto Blend da cultivar Leccino, Termite di Bitetto e Coratina. / 0,50 l