Cotechino With Lentils
Particularly in northern Italy, lenticchie con cotechino is the traditional dish served after midnight on NYE. Cotechino is a type of slow-cooked, spiced pork sausage. When you add a drizzle of high intensity extra virgin olive oil, like Abbraccio from our Evoo Selection, It become the perfect hearty and warming dish for a cold winter’s night.
For the Cotechino With Lentils
1 cotechino sausage
2 cups lentils (I used puy lentils), soaked in water overnight
1 onion, peeled and diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and diced
2 bay leaves
4 cups stock (I skimmed the fat from the broth from simmering the cotechino)
Salt and pepper for seasoning
3 tablespoons fresh parsley
- Firstly cook the cotechino.
- Place a pot of water to boil and then place the cotechino in it.
- Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2.5 hours or until it floats to the top. At this point you can leave it to cool (which I did as I was going out for the day). I also put the simmering stock in the fridge to separate the fat and I used it as stock for making the lentils. Saving the simmering liquid
- Heat a large pot and heat some oil or fat from the cotechino and saute the onion, carrot and garlic until soft.
- Add the lentils, bay leaves and stock and place the lid on and bring to a boil and cook with the lid on for 20 minutes.
- Then remove the lid and cook off the stock for 20 minutes. Season to taste.
- Heat a frypan and slice the cotechino.
- Add a spoon of Olivastra di Seggiano DOP extra virgin olive oil and pan fry the slices so that they are slightly crisp.
- Ladle the lentils (removing the bay leaves) in a serving dish with parsley and then place the sliced cotechino on top.
Find Olivastra di Seggiano DOP and our EVOO selection here:
https://woopevo.com/products/olivastra-di-seggiano-dop?variant=31817307488328
