Cotechino con Lenticchie
Spiced Italian pork sausage simmered for 2 hours and served on stewed lentils, a dish for New Year, in 2 hours 45 minutes.
Photograph credit: Lenticchie e cotechino fatti in casa!!! #money #foodporn #piemontefoodporn #piemontefood… by Andrea Tosatto · CC BY 2.0 · Flickr
Where This Goes Wrong
Never let the water boil hard.
Wrap the sausage in foil to protect the casing.
Serve with mustard to cut the richness.
How to Make Cotechino con Lenticchie
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Prick the cotechino all over and wrap it tightly in foil. Put it in a pan, cover with cold water and bring to a bare simmer. Cook for 2 hours.
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Soften the onion, carrot and celery in the oil for 8 minutes. Add the lentils, tomato purée, bay and the water.
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Simmer the lentils for 30 minutes until tender. Add the salt.
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Unwrap the cotechino and slice thickly. Serve over the lentils.
Why the Method Works
Why is this eaten at New Year? Because the round lentils are said to stand for coins, and the rich sausage for plenty. Cotechino con lenticchie is a dish of northern Italy, and it is a fixture of the table on the last night of the year.
Cotechino is a large, soft, spiced pork sausage that is simmered, not fried. Prick the skin and wrap it in foil, or use a pre-cooked one from a vacuum pack and follow the label. Never let the water boil hard, as the casing splits and the sausage falls out. A bare simmer for 2 hours keeps it whole and soft.
Meanwhile, cook the lentils with onion, carrot, celery, tomato and a bay leaf for 30 minutes, until tender but whole. Slice the cotechino thickly, lay it over the lentils and serve with a spoonful of mustard fruit or sharp mustard to cut the richness. The slices are fatty, so it is a dish eaten in small helpings.
Leftovers, Reheating and Keeping
Keeps for 3 days in the fridge. Reheat gently in a covered pan.
What to Serve Alongside
- Mustard
- Mashed potato
- Sparkling wine
Nutrition per Serving
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (most of the energy comes from foods with no recorded source). Why some recipes have none.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked.
First published ; last changed .
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