Published January 5th, 2020 Update: December 30, 2024
Lentils and Sausage Italian New Years Recipe is how we have for decades brought in the new year! Celebrating new year's eve with a traditional dish, a meal built on a history of a time where simple peasant dishes brought hope. Today, we still prepare this meal with a hint of excitement and hope for the following year.
Italian Tradition
Our celebratation meal over December is usually our Christmas Gammon and once the new year rolls around it's lentils and sausage that takes center stage.
Lentils and sausage is an easy recipe made with affordable ingredients, comforting and delicious!
You can make this recipe any time of the year but why not December the 31st in the hope of good fortune for the upcoming year? I'm all in!
I remember a time when we would be so religious about eating lucky lentils and spicy Italian sausage (or pork sausage when we couldn't find cotechino).
We would be sure to wait up so that we could eat the lentils and sausage at midnight as this is the new year's tradition.
We woke up to lentils and sausage on new year's day because the more coin-shaped legumes you ate, the more good luck you would have.
Truth is, we're too old now and couldn't stay up till midnight even if we tried😀but it remains how we continue to bring in the new year.
It's not always easy to find cotechino so we tend to use pork sausage because the idea is that the fat in the sausage is a good omen and resembles wealth.
What Is Cotechino Sausage and What is it Made Of?
Cotechino means "litle rind" as it derives from the word cotenna which in english is rind. It's a traditional Italian sausage that has a unique texture and a very rich flavor and the unique flavor is because it uses more of the pig than normal pork sausage does. Included in cotechino is the rind (skin) of the pork, pork meat, pork fat and pork cheek which are then ground and combined with spices and herbs and rolled to cook. Originating from the Modena region in Northern Italy and traditionally served with lentils for good luck on new years even and news years day.
Where Does The Tradition Come From of Lentils And Sausage?
This meal was at a time in Italy when the preservation of food was a way of life. The superstition however comes from the shape of the lentils (lentils is 'lenticchie' in Italian). The 'lenticchie' being the shape of a coin symbolizes money and prosperity. So to Italians eating lentils is a very good omen because it represents good health, money, abundance and prosperity. The pork sausage, is fat and that equals abundance.
The sausage of choice in this traditional recipe is pork and more so what is native to the regions of Italy is cotechino' Pronounced "CO-TE-CHI-NO"
New Years Eve Dinner
There are many traditions on what to eat for New Years Eve Dinner so it really depends on what you want to try. For example, Asian culture celebrates oranges and honey for good fortunes and in Spain they celebrate with grapes. For each time the bell chimes, they eat a grape. The world is full of wonders and these are the things that make it all so interesting!
There are two recipes in the recipe card below this post. One is the original recipe of how my husband grew up eating this new years meal. That version is Pugliese (hometown) and involves just a few ingredients: extra-virgin olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, lentils and a bay leaf. That's it!
The other simple recipe version of what I followed from how we cooked lentils at home with veggies like onions, carrots and parsely. Little did I know then that if I added celery and onion and change the cooking method slightly, it would be a soffitto. So I have shared both versions below. Enjoy!
Ingredeints For Italian Lentils Recipes
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Onions
- Carrots
- Celery
- Garlic cloves
- Kosher salt or sea salt
- Tomato paste
- Spices
- Bay leaves
- Uncooked brown lentils
- Water (or any cooking liquid of your choice) red wine, white wine, vegetable broth, chicken stock etc).
- Beef cubes
- Cotechino or good quality rich pork sausage
How To Make Lentils and Sausage
This is a very easy and basic method for cooking a sausage recipe and cooking a lentil recipe. Put the two together and serve sausage over a bed of lentils. Happy New Year!
As always, the printable recipe card can be found below this post.
Step 1 - Soffritto (Aromatic Mix)
We start off with a gentle sauté for the soffritto. In a large saucepan, on medium-low heat add a little olive oil (or butter) and fry yellow onion, pinch of salt, garlic, carrots and celery for a good 10 minutes. It's more a soffritto sauté but we also refer to it as a gentle soffritto fry.
The veggies should be finely diced. You can chop with a kitchen knife or add everything to a food processor and use the pulse button to control the size.
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Step 2 - Add the Tomatoes and Lentils
Salt, spices, tomato paste, chopped tomatoes, lentils and cold water and a bay leaf or two.
Increase the heat to medium-high heat and leave on a medium simmer for 30-40 minutes. Check in randomly to make sure it still has enough water to prevent the lentils from burning.
Step 3 - Cooking Liquid
Water (or any cooking liquid of your choice) red wine, white wine, vegetable broth etc). Meanwile, you can get a head-start with frying the sausage.
BUT FIRST ...
TASTE & ADJUST!
Step 4 Season
Add spices and seasoning. Use your favorite tasty spices to jush up the flavor if you want to.
Step 5 - Cook the Sausage
Add the sausages to the pan and cook them until they are browned all round. You will turn them when neccessary but give them time to brown. They should cook for rough 15 minutes. Serve over the lentils and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
- Instead of chopping all the vegetables, let the food processor do it for you. Use the pulse button to control the size.
What To Serve With Lentils and Sausage
This recipe is a whole meal on it's own however here are some that go very well with sausage and lentils:
For Garnish: Fresh herbs like thyme, chives or spring onion
From bread, veggies, salad and dessert to a typical easy Italian coffee dessert, I have you covered! I hope you've enjoyed this post as much as I've enjoyed writing it with so many memories coming to mind. Happy New Year!
- Bread: Any crunchy bread or this Garlic, Cheese and Herb Toast
- Veggetable Sides: Baked Smashed Potatoes, Air fryer potatoes and Oven Roasted Butternut
- Salad: Italian Caprese Salad (Insalata Caprese), Easy Spinach Caprese Salad, Tomato Cucumber Salad
- Meat: Add bacon, pork chops or guanciale.
- Dessert: Fruit salad
- Finishing Touches: Best Amaretto Affogato Recipe With Disaronno
More Lentil Recipes
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Lentils With Sausage Italian New Year's Recipe (Cotechino)
Ingredients
Recipe 1: Aromatics For Soffrito
- 3 tbsps. olive oil
- 1 onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic finely chopped/minced
- pinch of salt
- 2 carrots chopped
- 2 celery stalks rinsed and chopped
- 1 tbsp. butter unsalted
Lentils
- 2 cups lentils
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 410 grams canned diced tomatoes
- ½ cup water into the empty tomato can and swirl
- ½ cup red wine or substitute with stock or water
- 2 litres stock or 8 to 10 cups of water
- 2 to 3 bay leaves
- 1 tsp. salt and pepper
- 1 beef cube in a cup of boiling water
Sausage
- 400 grams pork sausage roughly 5 sausages, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon olive oil, butter or your chosen fat
Garnish
- chopped parsley
- fresh lemon
Recipe 2 - Traditional Italian Lentils
- 2 cups lentils
- water to cover the lentils and add as needed
- 2 to 3 garlic cloves peeled and whole
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon salt
- extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Cook the aromatics: Heat the oil and cook the onions, celery, carrots and garlic for 10 minutes on medium heat. Stir intermittently to avoid burning so keep the heat low if necessary. While the soffrito cooks, add the tablespoon of butter, stir it in and continue cooking until the 10 minutes is done.
- Lentils: Add all the ingredients from the lentils group and stir it all in, including the stock and the additional water from the empty tomato can. Increase the heat, bring to a decent simmer.
- Simmer: While the lentils simmer the water on the surface will create foam like scum, use a large spoon to skim the surface and discard the foam. You may have to do this twice. Place the lid on the pot and leave it to simmer for 40 minutes but check at least twice to make sure the lentils have enough water and if they need more, add.
- Remove the bay leaves and stir the lentil soup and taste for seasoning. If your lentils need more water, add a little at a time and stir it in. Serve with fresh lemon, and chopped parsley.
Sausage
- Heat the pan: While the lentils cook, make the sausage by heating a skillet or other pan on low to medium heat. Higher temperatures will burn the sausage before it cooks properly on the inside.
- Add fat: Add about a tablespoon of fat (oil) into the pan while heating. Any fat even duck fat if you want. Butter, vegetable oil, olive oil for cooking etc. The fat improves flavor and texture.
- Cook the sausages: Add the sausages to the pan and cook them until they are browned all round. You will turn them when neccessary but give them time to brown. They should cook for rough 15 minutes. See notes.
Serve
- Once the sausages have rested for 5 minutes after cooking, serve with the cooked lentils, fresh lemon juice and chopped parsley.
Tradional Italian Lentils Recipe
- Cook the lentils, garlic and bay leaves in water coverings them. Add salt, stir and bring to a simmer. Cook on low to medium heat, for about 20 minutes until the garlic cloves are soft. When the garlic cloves are soft enough to be mashed, the lentils will be ready.
- Serve with extra virgin olive oil.
Notes
Nutrition
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