A little bit of Italy arrived on the doorstep today .......

And with it came more than a bit of culinary history and a reminder of Ancoats in the 19th century.

The vegetarian platter

But first the food, which in our case was a vegetarian platter, but there is also a meat option.

The platters cost £20 which includes delivery to the door and can be ordered by clicking on the link.*

 Much of the food is made on site by the company and each of the two platters include “a selection of Veroni artisan charcuterie including the heavenly fennel salami , Napoli dolce , Proscuitto and a spicy spianata, Continental cheeses including goats cheese , mozzarella ball , provolone piccante , Gorgonzola and Spanish manchejo . 

Along with these there are artisan crackers, homemade pesto and hoummus and  grilled artichokes , Calabrian olives , marinaded sun dried tomatoes and roasted peppers . 

They come on a bed of fresh rocket that tends to absorb these oils and so it acts as a delicious flavoursome dressing”.

Nor is that all because there are also “some garlic croistini and mini picos de pan ( Spanish breadsticks, Ines Rosales - this is an amazing Spanish product - garlic and herb flavour cracker style and all individually hand wrapped” . 

And as an option in the vegetarian platter there is  “Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire and smoked applewood cheese, some home made sun dried tomato tapannade and some Italian grilled courgettes”.

The meat platter

The platters are supplied by Amato Products, and many people will remember that at one point they owned  “Buonissimo” the very popular deli on Beech Road in Chorlton.

"The company is a family run foodservice company based in Manchester City Centre. The company was founded 30 years ago by Bob and Deloras Amato. 

It was started with them making and selling fresh pasta to restaurants in and around Manchester. 

They then went on to open the Italian Deli, “Buonissimo” which was based in Chorlton, the customer base grew along with the demand for new products which Bob and Deloras would gladly source. 

Their reputation for supplying fine ingredients became well known to chefs and catering establishments in and around the Manchester area and Amato Products Ltd was established. 

Amato Products Ltd not only supplies specialist Mediterranean and oriental products, but we also cater for all ingredients required for the catering industry. 

The company have 18 vehicles distributing to over 700 customers from our 20,000sq ft warehouse based close to Piccadilly in central Manchester. We supply to customers large and small, all equally important to us, new customers are always welcome. We have a development kitchen on site where we can showcase our products, and also work with our customers to develop their menus, using our quality ingredients.

When the Covid-19 pandemic began we opened a pop-up shop at our premises where we sell lots of our quality products in retail size’s. The shop has been a huge success and it will remain open, we now have lots of regular customers enjoying our products at home. We can also offer home deliveries in some areas”.

At present they are offering the platters to customers across south Manchester,  from Chorlton, Didsbury and Altrincham to Hale, Sale,  Timperly and Wythenshawe and soon to Stockton Heath and Knutsford .

Tomorrow; more on the story of Amato Products and the history of the little bits of Ancoats which is home to the company

Location; Manchester

Pictures; courtesy of Amato Products Ltd, 2021

* Amato Products Ltd,  info@amatoproducts.co.uk