In Italy's New Year's Eve food tradition, lentils are commonly served with cotechino sausage to symbolise prosperity.
The dish cotechino con lenticchie combines a slow-cooked pork sausage with lentils. It is especially associated with the dinner or meal eaten around New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Lentils resemble small coins, so their presence represents wealth and financial good fortune for the year ahead.
Cotechino is a cooked sausage traditionally made from pork, including rind and other fatty cuts, and is strongly linked with northern Italian cuisine, particularly Modena. It is usually simmered and sliced before being served. Lentils provide a contrasting accompaniment and are valued for both their symbolism and their practicality as a filling winter food.
The meal is not Italy's only New Year custom, and recipes vary by region and household. A closely related sausage, zampone, is also frequently eaten with lentils; it differs from cotechino because the seasoned filling is traditionally enclosed in a pig's trotter.