MASSERIA CUSMAI
Products Catalogue
Masseria Cusmai is a certified organic company: n. 2790 - ICEA, MiPAAF
The Cusmai Family:
a story from the Apulian countryside
—
The Cusmai family has been devoted to agriculture since early 1900s.
They own almost 20 hectares (200,000 square meters) of land where
olive trees are grown. Their olive tree grove comprises three cultivar of
olives, replaced in the early 50s: the native Coratina, then the Ogliarola and the Peranzana. Together with extra-virgin olive oil production and processing, at Masseria Cusmai they expanded their range of
products, starting to produce several preserves of their ripe tomatoes, plump olives, oil pickled vegetables; apulian baked goods complete
their range. Masseria Cusmai is a certified organic company: n. 2790
- ICEA, MiPAAF.
Telling Masseria Cusmai’s story means telling the story of a sunny
and sound countryside: Salvatore Cusmai, the first to start the farm
business, called his olives his golden bells. Each olive tree in his [olive
tree] grove has a neat and fluent crown, so that each branch has access
to its fair share of sunlight and air. The thriving trees and the thirsty
ground can witness hot and dry summers; so can the tomatoes and
olives produced in the farm, respecting their natural cycle. We want to
tell Masseria Cusmai’s story to convey the heartwarming taste of the
Apulian ground, hard-working and essential.
–
Masseria Cusmai Red Tomatoes
—
Tomatoes’s growing is carried out during the hottest months of the
year. 5 months, from April till August, are needed since when tomatoes are planted (April) to when they give the first fruits (July and
August). Masseria Cusmai’s tomatoes come from the fertile and sunny
Apulian ground. Tomatoes are grown outdoor in spacious and regular
lines; for example, ciliegino’s tomatoes’s rows are spaced up to one meter from each other. During the 5 months growing, plants will be scarcely watered. Ciliegino tomatoes are not watered at all, following the
dry growing method called ‘in seccagna’. Tomatoes’s flavour is greatly
enhanced because of the little water, and so their colour will be sharp.
In August tomatoes’s red will be sharp and high, contrasting the green
leaves and the vine. The reddest tomatoes are picked first, the others
in subsequent rounds to give them time to reach their perfect ripeness.
Tomatoes are brought at Masseria Cusmai little after picking. They
are laid down across big tables to be carefully selected and separated
from the vine. They will then be washed in tap water.
Ciliegino tomatoes will be plunged directly into the jars; the other varieties will be filleted, pureed or peeled. Each tomato will follow its
own route. The secret of Masseria Cusmai’s production it’s actually
not a secret: it’s all in the careful selection of plants, ground and beautifully ripe tomatoes.
What a beautiful range of reds in the Rosso Pomodoro’s line! They
remind us of the lavish opulence in Barocco’s decorations or of the
luxurious colours in the paintings by some 1800’s Italian artists. Rosso
Pomodoro’s reds are bright or burnt, intense but natural and authentic. Each taste of Passata or Sugo Ortolano is a feast for the palate.
All the products from the red line are entirely natural and no additives
are present.
–
Passata di pomodoro Ingre-
dients Fresh red Italian tomatoes
(Apulia), Margherita di Savoia’s
salt, one leaf of fresh basil
Tomatoes are selected directly at
Masseria Cusmai, hand picked and
separated from the vine. They are
washed in tap water, then parboiled and pureed. The tomatoes
passata is poured in glass jars with
the final touch of a fresh basil leaf
before sealing.
There will soon be available three new tomato sauces: onion
and basil, olives and arrabbiata. Beyond fresh and ripe tomatoes and herbs and condiments specific to each passata,
we always use the extra-virgin
Intenso.
Sizes
350 g
500 g
680 g
3000 g
Pack
6 pcs
12 pcs
12 pcs
2 pcs
Ciliegini al naturale Ingredients Ciliegino tomatoes (Apulia), water, Margherita di Savoia’s salt
Dry-grown at Masseria Cusmai,
in the countryside between Altamura and Spinazzola (Apulia), tomatoes are hand picked,
selected and carefully separated from the vine by hands.
Pomodori pelati Ingredients
Skinned whole red fresh oblong
Italian tomatoes from Apulia, water, Margherita di Savoia’s salt
Washed, raw and intact they
are placed into the glass jars,
salt and water are added; then
the vases are pasteurized.
Sizes
300 g*
2000 g*
*Net Drained Weight
Tomatoes are hand picked, selected and carefully separated
from the vine and filleted by hands. After parboiling, they are peeled by hand and carefully placed
in the glass jars.
Sizes
400 g*
*Net Drained Weight
Packs
8 pcs
Packs
12 pcs
2 pcs
Filetti di pomodoro Ingredients Red fresh oblong Italian
tomatoes from Apulia, filleted,
with skin, water, Margherita di
Savoia’s salt
Tomatoes are hand picked, selected and carefully separated
from the vine and filleted by
hands. Raw, they are carefully placed in the glass jars with
water and salt.
Sizes
2900 g*
*Net Drained Weight
Sugo
ortolano
artigianale
Ingredients Red fresh Italian tomatoes from Apulia, peppers,
onions, carrots, extra-virgin olive
oil Intenso, celery, parsley, garlic,
Margherita di Savoia’s salt, basil,
chilly
Fresh vegetables are added to the
Passata and cooked for more than
6 hours. The sauce is sifted before
being poured in jars.
Sizes
270 g
Packs
12 pcs
Packs
2 pcs
Masseria Cusmai’s Extra-virgin Olive Oils
—
Masseria Cusmai’s extra-virgin olive oil comes in four fragrant variants Fruttato Intenso (Intensely fruity), DOP - Terra di Bari Castel
del Monte, Fruttato Delicato (Dainty fruity) and Biologico (Organic).
They were born together to satisfy different palates and cuisines. They
do not accompany, but define a dish.
Mr Kuzmay tells Masseria
Cusmai’s and its olive tree grove’s
story.
Follow him on
www.masseriacusmai.com
A year of olives: how the best
extra-virgin is produced
—
Oil production does require passion and efforts: it takes a whole
year to prepare to its extraction.
Mr Kuzmay (you do remember
him, do you?) learned it from the
last three generations of Cusmais.
There’s no time to hole up in January and February at all! It is
instead time to fertilize and pru-
ne. The best time to compost
the ground is when the year
begins. Then, the so-called dry
pruning is carried out to prepare the trees to the growth
of the olives: dry branches and
those which have given olives in
the past year are trimmed out
and the tree is ready for a fresh
start. Pruning is carried out
perpendicularly to the tree giving its crown the shape of an
upside-down vase. The discarded
branches are burned in the stove
to warm up the house after the
long days spent in the olive tree
grove.
In late February, the thinnest
branches are left on the ground
for manure further to the pruning; the ground is worked up until 30 cm in depth to prepare it for
spring. The vegetative awakening
of the olive trees starts in March,
when the leaves are treated with
copper and lime. The care for the
olive trees is almost sacred, with a
religious respect for its life cycles.
Olive trees are inherently elegant.
In April Mr Kuzmay, after the
heavy jobs, details the pruning
seconding the elegance of their
crown. In May, the true awakening of the olive trees is white of
the many flowers blooming on the
branches.
Mr Kuzmay can’t wait: olives
will be born very soon! The fruit
set stage is the most important
part of the development of olive
and any other fruit tree. In June,
when the first tiny olives start
appearing, treatments need to
be given to the olive tree to to
reinforce peduncles so that olives do not fall ahead of their
time. First irrigations also take
place: water sweetens the olives
and helps balancing the resulting oil’s pH.
Summer is very hot in Apulia,
so Mr Kuzmay will water the
ground frequently. In July he
will do it over night, when the
plants are relaxed and the minute pores in the leaves are all
open.
August is vacation time for
everybody but for olive tree carers! Sterile branches are trimmed: these so-called ‘suckers’
were once weaved into lovely
baskets. September is all about
leaves. The olive’s fly likes the
fleshy drupes a lot and must be
dealt with. At Masseria Cusmai
only flawless, plump olives
make the best extra-virgin.
October is all about getting tools and machinery ready for
the harvest.
Everything must be hunky-dory
for the best outcome.
Mr Kuzmay starts off the harvest
of the Coratina olives on the 2nd
November; Ogliarola and Peranzana olives harvest started already
two weeks earlier. Olives are best
picked green for the best extravirgin properties. Few hours later
the extra-virgin olive oil starts
flowing from their plump pulp.
Olives may be picked up until December, but some will have turned
black yielding oil of slightly inferior quality. Therefore Mr Kusmay
explains that while it’s true that
harvesting olives in November,
when they are fully green, leads to
less oil being produced, the extravirgin from only green olives is the
best extra-virgin olive oil yet.
Olio extravergine di oliva
Fruttato Intenso The Intensely
Fruity Extra-Virgin is emerald
green, with golden highlights; its
powerful scent is reminiscent of
olives, almonds and artichokes.
The sweet flavour has intensely
hot and bitter notes. The Inten-
sely Fruity Extra-Virgin is
especially intended for the golden wheat in bread, the earthy
flavours of meats, wild greens
and mushrooms from Murgia.
Coratina and Peranzana are
the olive’s cultivar used for the
Intensely Fruity Extra-Virgin.
Olio extravergine di oliva
Fruttato Delicato The Dain-
ty Fruity Extra-Virgin is green
with yellow highlights; its delicate olive’s scent has light notes of
herbs, green tomatoes and flowers.
Its sweet flavour, with discrete bitter and piquant notes, is rounded
by fresh almond hints. It is intended to define fish and seafood
dishes, light dips and condiments
and it is superb for pastries. Ogliarola and Coratina are the cultivars
employed for the The Dainty Fruity Extra-Virgin.
Sizes
250 ml
500 ml
750 ml
1000 ml
3000 ml
5000 ml
Packs
12 pcs
12 pcs
6 pcs
6 pcs (can)
4 pcs (can)
2 pcs (can)
Masseria Cusmai is a
certified organic company: n. 2790 - ICEA,
MiPAAF
Olio extravergine di oliva
Biologico da Agricoltura
Italiana The Organic ExtraVirgin is green with yellow
highlights; its delicate olive’s
scent has light notes of herbs,
green tomatoes and flowers. It
is as sweet as the Dainty with
the same light notes of herbs,
green tomatoes and flowers,
rounded by fresh almond hints.
It is also intended to define fish
and seafood dishes, light dips and
condiments and it is superb for pastries. Completely organic Ogliarola olives with a small percentage
of Coratina ones are employed for
the Organic Extra-Virgin.
Sizes
500 ml
1000 ml
3000 ml
5000 ml
meats, wild greens and mushrooms from Murgia. Coratina olives are used for the DOP Extra-Virgin.
Sizes
500 ml
Packs
12 pcs
Packs
12 pcs
6 pcs (can)
4 pcs (can)
2 pcs (can)
Olio extravergine
di oliva DOP Terra di Bari Castel del Monte
The DOP - Terra di Bari Castel
del Monte Extra-Virgin is emerald
green, with golden highlights; its
powerful scent is reminiscent of
olives, almonds and artichokes.
The sweet flavour has intensely
hot and bitter notes.
The DOP Extra-Virgin is especially intended for the golden wheat
in bread, the earthy flavours of
The olives:
a different destiny than
extra-virgin...
—
Some of the plumpest olives
follow a different destiny than
extra-virgin, as they are picked, cured and eaten.
Masseria Cusmai’s specialities
are Sant’Agostino olives in brine, the oil-pickled Coratina and
the Termite from Bitetto.
Coratina sottolio Ingredients of
oil-pickled Coratina Coratina olives, oregano, chilly, garlic, parsley,
MC’s Intensely Fruity Extra-virgin.
the herbs then plunged into its
own extra-virgin.
Sizes
200 g*
Packs
12 pcs
*Net Drained Weight
Coratina olives have a twofold deployment: they can be either cold
pressed to obtain the scrumptious
extra-virgin or oil-pickled and
preserved to be eaten as a delicious
side. The olives, still green when
hand-picked, has a pleasant bitter
aftertaste: pitted, is dressed with
Olive Sant’Agostino in salamoia Ingredients of Sant’Agostino olives in brine Sant’Agostino olives, water, Margherita
di Savoia’s salt, wild fennel
Sant’Agostino olives (or An-
dria’s Large/Big) have a most peculiar large size. These variety
cannot be used for oil production
because they will not yield enough.
The tree has oblung leaves of a
slightly duller green, if compared to the olive trees for oil production. Sant’Agostino olives are
perfect used in starters and side
dishes.
Sizes
330 g*
Packs
12 pcs
*Net Drained Weight
Olive Termite di Bitetto in
salamoia Ingredients of Termite
olives from Bitetto Termite olives
from Bitetto, water, Margherita di
Savoia’s salt, wild fennel
—
Termite olives from Bitetto, like
Sant’Agostino olives, are not used
for oil production. This cultivar
is native from Bari’s ground (and
Bitetto is the name of a small village near Bari) and it is selected
under attentive scrutiny at Masseria Cusmai.
The slightly bitter flavour and
the fleshy fruits make these olives ideal as starters as well as a
mains and sides ingredient.
Sizes
330 g*
*Net Drained Weight
Packs
12 pcs
Melanzane sottolio Ingredients
Pomodori secchi sottolio
of Aubergines in extra-virgin olive
oil Italian aubergines (Apulia),
extravirgin olive oil Intenso, vinegar, garlic, celery, chilly, salt, oregano
Ingredients of Sundried tomatoes in extra-virgin olive oil Sundried tomatoes (Apulia), extravirgin olive oil Intenso, vinegar,
garlic, celery, chilly
Fresh red ripe tomatoes are cut
in half, placed on racks and left
to dry slowly in the sun. After
a few days, they’re accurately
placed into small jars with a
careful balance of herbs, then
covered in extra-virgin olive
oil, the Intenso from Masseria
Cusmai.
Aubergines are peeled by hand,
plunged raw into the extra-virgin
Intenso from Masseria Cusmai; a
balanced selection of herbs is added for extra flavour
Sizes
230 g*
*Net Drained Weight
Packs
12 pcs
Sizes
230 g*
*Net Drained Weight
Packs
12 pcs
Taralli scaldati artigianali
Ingredients of Artisan scalded taralli ‘00’ flour, white wine, extravirgin olive oil Intenso, salt, natural yeast
The artisan taralli with natural
yeast and extra-virgin olive oil
keep their fragrance and texure intact from the oven. Their
crafting is entirely carried out at
Masseria Cusmai and topped with
their excellent extra-virgin. Taralli are crafted in different versions: original, with sesame, with
onions, with chilly.
Taralli are said ‘scalded’ because
when their the dough is still raw
and shaped into rings, they are
immersed in boiling water for one
minute.
Drained, they are left to
dry slowly in air. When dry,
they are cooked in the oven.
The ingredients used in Taralli
are the three key-products in the
Apulian agriculture: the wheat,
the extra-virgin olive oil and the
wine.
Taralli bring all the flavours of the
Apulian grounds to the table and
the annular shape is symbolic
of this synthesis.
Sizes
400 g
3000 g
Packs
30 pcs
4 pcs
Credits
Mr Kuzmay Illustrations - Valorize.
Contents by Nicola and Riccardo Cusmai, Claudia Ceci (A year of olives: how the
best extra-virgin is produced) and Nicola Quacquarelli.
Printed by Grafiche Guglielmi, Andria using the recicled paper Fedrigoni Vellum
White, FSC certified.
Masseria Cusmai
di Cusmai Nicola & C. SAS
via San Candido 15-19
Andria BT Puglia Italy
t/fax +39 0883 562723
VAT number 07166790720
www.masseriacusmai.com
[email protected]
[email protected]
Discover/Found us on
Facebook, Google+ e Pinterest.