Zampone 1kg, Corte Grazia

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, 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 are ‘credited’ to bring money for the coming year.

It is prepared by filling the natural casing with rind, pork meat, and fat mixed with salt and spices. 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.