COTECHINO WITH LENTILS is an indispensable dish at holiday dinners, particularly at the New Year’s Eve feast where, besides being delicious, it is often considered a symbol of good luck. It’s a simple dish to prepare and relatively quick if, as most people do now, you use a precooked cotechino. Yet, as you will certainly have experienced, when midnight strikes on December 31 it becomes an absolute treat that brings a smile just like fireworks or the hugs friends exchange while wishing each other well.
As I said, the dish is simple and requires only a few attentions: flavor the lentils well with a classic Italian soffritto of celery, onions and carrots, and cook them until just tender, leaving them slightly underdone since they’ll finish cooking before being served. If you share my tastes, don’t be shy with the rosemary—it’s really wonderful in this dish.
SEE OTHER RECIPES WITH COTECHINO:
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Inexpensive
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter
Ingredients
- 1 precooked cotechino (1.3 lb (600 g))
- 1 1/4 cup lentils
- 1 carrot
- Half onion
- 1 stalk celery
- 1 sprig rosemary
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- 4 1/4 cups water
- to taste coarse salt
Tools
- 1 Pan
- 1 Pot
Steps
Roughly chop the celery, carrot and onion. In a pan add a generous drizzle of oil and sauté the chopped aromatics with a sprig of rosemary for 5 minutes over low heat.
Rinse the lentils, drain them and add them to the sautéed aromatics. Cover completely with water and simmer over low heat for 1 hour. When almost cooked, season with salt.
Place the precooked cotechino, still sealed in its aluminum pouch, into cold water. Put over heat and cook following the package instructions; usually it takes 20–30 minutes from boiling.
Remove it from the cooking water, open the pouch, discard the liquid, peel off the casing and let it cool slightly for a few minutes.
Place the lentils on a serving plate and arrange the cotechino cut into slices about 3/8 inch thick.
