Lentils are Italy's traditional New Year's Eve food symbolizing prosperity because of their coin-like shape.
Italian families commonly serve lentils around midnight or on New Year's Day, often with cotechino or zampone, types of seasoned pork sausage. Their small, round, flat appearance resembles coins, so eating them is associated with hopes for financial abundance in the coming year.
The custom is especially linked with northern Italian dishes such as cotechino con lenticchie. Lentils also have practical historical significance: they are nutritious, inexpensive, and keep well, making them suitable for winter meals and for a tradition centered on abundance.
The lentils are not a New Year's Eve dessert, and the symbolism is separate from the superstition that eating pork represents progress because pigs root forward. Italian regional traditions vary, so households may serve different ingredients alongside lentils.