Cotechino

The cotechino (, ) is an Italian large pork sausage requiring slow cooking; usually it is simmered at low heat for several hours. Its name comes from cotica (rind), but it may take different names in the different production areas.
According to tradition, it is served with lentils on New Year's Eve, because lentils—due to their shape—are 'credited' to bring money for the coming year. 

It is prepared by filling the natural casing with rind, pork meat (usually of secondary choice), and fat mixed with salt and spices; in industrial production, nitrites and nitrates are added as preservatives. Some similar sausages exist in the Italian cooking tradition, for example musetto and zampone which are made with different meat and parts of the pork, musetto is made with meat taken from the pork's muzzle and zampone is held together by the pork's anterior leg skin.

Varieties of cotechino

The cotechino Modena has PGI status, meaning its recipe and production are preserved under the Italian and European law.

Four Italian regions have so far declared cotechino a traditional food: 
Emilia-Romagna: see above (Cotechino Modena) 
Lombardy: cotechino (Cremona, Bergamo, Mantua, Pavia)
Molise: cotechino
Trentino: pork cotechino
Veneto: recognises seven different products: coeghin nostran of Padua; coessin co la lengua of Vicenza, coessin of Vicenza, coessin of Val Leogra, coessin in onto of Vicenza, coessin co lo sgrugno, cotechino di puledro
Irpinia: cotechino pezzente

See also

Cotechino Modena
Italian cuisine
 List of Italian dishes
Venetian cuisine

Notes

External links
History of cotechino

Category:Italian sausages