Delicious Italy met Peppe Cotto for the first time when we took the film crew producing the Channel 4 Feast with Heston Blumenthal series to Loro Piceno, Le Marche, in 2008.

Peppe is the rising star of the Italian gastronomic media circuit and has recently featured in such local shows as 'Sereno Variable' on RAI and 'Il Gastronauto' on Radio 24.

Peppe runs the Macelleria Giuseppe Dell'Orso in Loro Piceno, sadly one of the last in this classic Le Marche hill top town, which was once a beacon for the local tradition of cattle rearing.

The sepia photos in his butcher's shop remember a different time.

The most famous product of the zone is cooked wine or 'vino cotto' and do buy a bottle from Peppe for pasta sauce preparation back home.

When you enter his shop Peppe may also offer you a vino cotto aperitif accompanied with a slice of that other local, regional delicacy 'ciauscolo'.

Not forgetting 'pork pate or 'terrina di maiale' and 'bresaola marchigiana'.

Peppe is also an artist deep at heart and be amazed at the creativity behind the food related ornaments decorating his shop.

The interior is adorned with candles made of lard; hats, bow ties and aprons from crispy pork, that sort of thing.

Special place is given to the Piceno shield or ' scudo piceno' a sort of edible symbol of local, ancient tribal defiance.

Peppe Cotto
Macelleria Giuseppe Dell'Orso
Via Regina Margherita, 4
Loro Piceno, Macerata

READ MORE ABOUT VINO COTTO

www.vinocotto.org
www.vinocotto.it